Because You Never Asked (Book One) (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780615996356)

Jerome Grapel was born in Brooklyn, NY in 1945 and raised in the New York City area in what could be called a vintage middle class upbringing. He attended Temple University in Philadelphia where he played baseball and graduated with a B.A. in history in 1967. With a noticeable lack of vocation for anything, and not knowing what else to do, he continued at Temple Law School, graduating in 1970. After a short stint at a small law firm, Grapel's courtship with the American Dream ended unsuccessfully. In 1972, a friend from college introduced him to Key West, the perfect antidote for cultural misfits. He has lived there ever since, working a multitude of inconsequential jobs, none of which had to be taken home with him. For the last 30 years he has been driving a taxi, a job which offered the flexibility to travel extensively. Without a "career" to encumber much of his life, he began writing in his spare time. "I found out this is what I want to do," he says. Grapel has been married 2 times but has grown accustomed to living alone over the last 20 years or so. It is also relevant to note that for much of that time he has spent 2 months of the year on the Spanish island of Formentera.