The Old Homestead:

The Old Homestead is a landmark building set in New York amongst the hustle and bustle of the city, endless traffic jams, and yellow cabs. In this great city, an executive of NBC Radio Monitor is choosing to use the subway to get to his office building, but on his way he is drawn into a profoundly tragic situation, which he resolves in a most life affirming way. He then continues on his way to work, where he receives important career news, which he later shares with his friends when he meets them at the Old Homestead. The tragic incident in the subway will not completely go away, and the theme is revisited. The knot of life and death, joy and pain, success and failure is unraveling and then takes a side-way turn to lead towards the ending of the story, a mysterie ending nobody could forsee, an ending that leads towards a new beginning, and yet is based on someone who was there from the beginning.

The story is very well written, with a superb command of American English. The professional writing style of the book makes it a pleasure to read. The books authentic New Yorkishness, feels like a homecoming in itself, for any person who has ever visited or lived in New York.

The story left me with indelible impressions that clearly touched my heart, my mind, and spirituality. More still, I made me ponder on the mysteries of the story, and what is written between the lines. It was a pleasure reading this book, and it made me feel and think in more profound ways, about the ups and downs of life, and how to cope with the inevitable that we will all face as individuals one day.

Mark A Nechoda; American Novel (2011), 152 pages.

Available from Trafford Publishing and Amazon.com.