Homecoming of the Same Man: The Journey of a Middle Aged Law Student by Lian Goh starts out asking a law classroom, exactly how does law really work? This question becomes the premise for Nick Goldwin’s journey, leaving his public service job to enroll in law school and try to understand the system from the inside. His choices came at a time when his wife, Linda, tragically lost her life in a car accident, caused by a driver looking down to get a tape and running a red light. Initially, the Crown charges the reckless driver with “dangerous driving causing death.” Then, just as quickly, justice was diminished to careless driving resulting in his license being suspended for a year, “and a maximum fine of seven hundred fifty dollars.” Nick is told at the end of everything that this is just how the law works.
Bad Americans: Part I by Tejas Desai is book two in The Human Tragedy series. It’s a very ambitious piece of fiction in the satire and short stories anthology genres. It’s divided into six stories following Andrea, Cathy, Taylor, Rashan, Ricard, and Nalini. The story opens with a competition that has brought twelve people to the Hamptons, where they are awaiting their host and creator of the competition, Olive Mixer. He’s considered a recluse billionaire. This is during the pandemic, and all twelve are excited to be free for two weeks after being on shutdown for so long.
When life gets tough, the impulse for many of us is to run. For some, they just need to take a drive out of town for a few days. Other times, it feels as if you have to get as far away as possible to try to escape your problems. Drinking from the Stream by Richard Scott Sacks examines two young men from 1970s America who are both attempting to leave their troubled lives behind. Though they have vastly different reasons for doing so, they embark on a journey together that shows them a different side of the world and each other.
