Forty years I worked in meatpacking. The kill floor was tough on a man, 16 hogs every 58 seconds. This book talks about that life. It tells the truth.

Francis J. Tekippe
Retired hog kill worker
FDL Foods, Inc.

A far more comprehensive, rigorous, and political anatomy of packing plants than Upton Sinclair's 1906 "The Jungle" and a true microcosm of American life in the late 20th Century, this fine first novel of "The Loss of Certainty" triology creates the multi-dimensional landscape, the three dimensional people, and the muti-layered working life of Jackson, Iowa with such exquisite, gritty, poetic sentences and hard-edged dialogue that I want more... and more. I was so entranced by Jones' story telling ability, his mastery of working conditions both in the packing plant and city hall, his understanding of how money works, and the depth of his characterizations, that I read the book in one sitting. I am still mesmerized five days later.

Charles Aukema
Professor of English
Coe College

Jones knows his city and the folks who make it run. He brings us into their offices and their homes, never missing the details that make their jobs and relationships real. This is a novel about how people at work interrelate, often at cross purposes, first in their day-to-day routines and then in crisis. Rather than being told about them, we see what they are in their actions, their aspirations, and their views of themselves and others. Many don't like each other, but Jones likes them all, and this allows him to get deeper inside their minds and makes their conflicts complex and moving.

Arnold Chadderdon
Professor of English
Post University