“What compels a man to leave home to sail out into the treacherous sea? What constrains a man to set out for home after having ridden the crest of many waves?”
“The Market” sheds light into these crucial questions. It tackles the restiveness that propels mortals to abandon familiar comforts for uncertain pursuits. In this novel, Neil Erich Galicia invites his readers to accompany Kent as he sits on a bus headed for the home he had left seven years ago. This journey towards home is pregnant with profound musings and an intense mix of emotions. In the few hours that it takes to reach his hometown, he grapples with the many roads that his heart, mind, body, and spirit had simultaneously traveled in the past. Desires with neither face nor name had driven him to search for that which would quiet the discontent of his heart, the turmoil of his mind, the agitation of his body, and the vexations of his spirit. Now battered in many ways but imbued with wisdom, strength, and greater clarity, home has beckoned. He resolutely heeds its call. The novel unravels the gripping manner in which this decision wraps itself around his being.
When Kent finally steps foot again on the same grounds that he had once played on as a child and walked upon in his youth, he sees life once more with fresh eyes. As he does, he touches a bit of eternity in all its simplicity.
With uncanny sensitivity, Neil’s novel prompts readers to relive the experience of having been paralyzed by life’s many thunderbolts only to be surprised by fresh energy anew. “The Market” reminds them that in the place where life began may be found most of that which they are looking for.
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