Dr. Donald Michaelson knows it is impossible to exist for any length of time without wondering whether life is worth living at all. For five years, he has watched the eyes of his students glaze over with boredom as he lectures about beauty, truth, and justice. But now he has just taught his last English class at Bluestone University, the victim of a forced resignation. He decides on suicide as the means to end his pain and confusion-only to find that self-inflicted death is neither an easy nor satisfactory way to end his problems.

As he attempts to make his way off campus for the last...

Dr. Donald Michaelson knows it is impossible to exist for any length of time without wondering whether life is worth living at all. For five years, he has watched the eyes of his students glaze over with boredom as he lectures about beauty, truth, and justice. But now he has just taught his last English class at Bluestone University, the victim of a forced resignation. He decides on suicide as the means to end his pain and confusion-only to find that self-inflicted death is neither an easy nor satisfactory way to end his problems.

As he attempts to make his way off campus for the last...