Not a Love Story (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781945772139)

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 two months of the year on the Spanish island of Formentera. Not A Love Story is his first work of fiction.