Three Chords
Mike Mihalek
RoseHeart Publishing
10116 SW 122nd St., Gainesville, FL 32608
ISBN 9780980150421, $ 12.95, (863) 984-2966, www.roseheartbooks.com
"Three Chords" is a character-driven novel dealing with
the complex issues of child abuse, abandonment, and unresolved guilt.
Sixteen years after being abandoned by his mother, frustrated, confused,
and seeking closure, Ethan, a 26-year-old musician, set out to find her.
An earlier attempt by his father prompted Ethan to visit a South Florida
marina. He followed a clue arising from a phone call made by Julie four
years earlier. The call was traced to a public telephone and Ethan soon
located his mother.
After leaving Ethan and his father John in Baltimore, Julie lived
and worked at a homeless shelter where she met people and heard stories
that helped put things in perspective for her. Julie described her
experience this way: "Drugs, incest, abuse; entire families on the
street ... life was cruel, unfair, but people survived, learned to cope.
Still was surviving enough? What about hope?"
As a result of the impact of her personal inner turmoil, feeling of
desperation, and self-inflicted abasement, Julie became a fugitive,
running from her past, driven and haunted by her guilt. After Ethan
found her and as she worked through the challenge of reconciliation with
the family she left behind, she is caught in the middle of a scheme to
vandalize the South Florida marina she now calls home.
Mike's writing is absorbing. He writes with amazing insight
into issues of dysfunctional relationships. He writes of the experience
and pain of, regret, confusion and longing felt by Ethan, John, and
Julie. He reveals compassion, forgiveness. Mihalek uses strong dialog
and mental images to help his characters work through resolution to the
conflict they have been endured. I identified with their pain and
confusion as I became aware of an inner sense of conflict and unresolved
issues in my own quest for identity. Mike shows unique insight into a
subculture of illegal activity, greed, and the frenzy of real estate
developers in South Florida.
Mike Mihalek writes with a creative imagination and strong
story-telling skills. "Three Chords" is haunting, timely, and
an important novel.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Midwest Book
Review Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
Copyright 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning. All rights
reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.
NOTE: All illustrations and photos have been removed from this article.