jack used to be an investigative reporter, but was demoted to the obituary beat after publicly insulting race maggad iii, the ceo of the newspaper's publishing company. his ambition is to climb back onto the front page by "yoking my byline to some famous stiff." jack's job of writing obituaries all day long has made him become morbidly obsessed with death, especially his own. each year, jack obsesses about people who died at his age, and about the fate of his deceased father jack tagger sr., who disappeared when jack was young. his mother refuses to say when jack sr. died, and he is paranoid about not living as long as his father did. these obsessions cost him his favorite girlfriend, anne.