Bøger af Mike Cohen

Rivertown Heroes is a Watergate era tale told by Nathan Hirsch, a young, anxious, and self-critical DC lawyer burdened with guilt from his past. Fueled by a poisonous concoction of ambition and insecurity, Nathan attempts a scheme so disloyal to his law firm that he barely skirts disbarment and is forced to end his practice in the nation's capital. Nathan retreats to his hometown Bethell, Washington depending upon family and old ties to salvage his tainted career. His dream of escape fades into a dreary reality when Nathan takes a humble job as a public defender arranged by his "Uncle" Harry King, a lawyer, and Nathan's childhood mentor. But When Nathan represents an indigent defendant wrongly accused of murdering a Hirsch family friend, the case's twists and turns point responsibility at Harry King and other Hirsch family intimates. As he pursues the truth, risking disbarment and damage to his extended family, Nathan finds solace and possibly romance with Katie, his dead brother's former girlfriend. Lawyer Mike Cohen makes his fictional debut in this intense coming of age tale of fidelity, community, and justice. Fans of Scott Turow's and David Guterson's complex legal novels will welcome this work to the genre.

This book is an honest account of the journey Mike Cohen has taken to understand himself and the challenges that many Americans face when their lives are turned upside down by an unexpected career event. The drama of such an event is further magnified when you are in the 50-65 year-old range. It is a raw and poignant narrative about a subject that could be depressing but the author finds a way to make it surprisingly uplifting with his wit and willingness to bare his soul to the reader. "You experience the emotions of the lead character of a novel...but it is all too real!" "This is a must read for anybody who faces career challenges at any age."

"In choosing the short stories gathered here I couldn't help but be reminded of Aristotle's prescriptive elements for drama: a protagonist, an antagonist, and a complicator. The reader of these stories might also note that Aristotle could have been writing as well about a three-person family: mother, father, and one child. This, of course, was the underpinning of my family's drama where Aristotelian lessons played out, lessons reinforced for me later in literature and on the proper stage in the plays of Ibsen, O'Neil, and Miller featuring conflicted families. Our drama emerged when my family abruptly left Minnesota to resettle on the west coast during the middle of my fifth-grade school year. Nothing compelled my family to move: no new job, no newly purchased home, none of the myriad events that might trigger a dramatic relocation. However, that sudden departure from the Midwest foreshadowed three decades of deepening discord between my parents. As I grew older I realized that whatever the stated reasons for relocating, a deeper desire on my mother's part had been hidden. She wanted to leave my father. This accounted for her anxiousness to depart even if we as a family were utterly unprepared for what lay ahead. While I was hardly surprised that my parents separated, the timing - late into their senior years - felt as bizarre and awkward as the abruptness of our hejira west so many decades earlier. My mother informed me thereafter that her life with Dad had been "A Greek tragedy." Aristotle again. The disintegration of my parent's marriage taught me not to ignore the daily opportunity to experience some personal truth. Though invisible, wounds left by unspoken longings and unsatisfied needs can be lethal. By exploring moments in which hidden personal yearnings are exposed and blind spots are illuminated (sometimes with discomfort but not without humor) perhaps we may see ourselves with humility and those about us with greater empathy and compassion. If one or more of my tales strikes you as having been successful in illuminating one of those moments I will be gratified." (Prolog - The Three of Us)