The First Impression began with some humor and self-deprecation on the part of Jake, an author with one published work and then a definite slump that ended in his being a professor at Ripley, a small college that focused on teaching new writers the craft. I was not terribly impressed with page after page of prose and very little else. The entire first two chapters were depressing actually, totally focused on Jake’s failures and life choices that ended up with him here.