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THE ROOM
Changed Publishers - This edition is out of print.
see: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
see: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...
204 pages, Hardcover
First published September 19, 2007
9 people are currently reading
15 people want to read
About the author
Ray Melnik
8 books6 followersJust before college, Ray won first place in the National Pen Women Competition for his fictional short story, Distinction, as well as winning second place in the New York Best of City - The Written Word. While attending college, Ray Melnik's course on existential literature opened a whole new world for him with the study of writers such as Sartre and Camus.
He pursued a musical career as a singer and lyricist, after leaving college. In the early 1980s he was the lead singer for One Hand Clap and then Fine Malibus, with Steve Stevens, current guitarist and song writer for Billy Idol. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Ray was engineer and co-owner of MANNIK Productions, a recording studio in the Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, New York. In addition to lyrics, Ray, wrote a monthly column about pro audio for a music trade magazine, American Liverpool.
Later moving into the field of technology as a network engineer and then architect, he wrote for the technology panel of a regional newspaper, Times Herald Record, and was the primary writer of articles based on home technology for the website New Technology Home. Ray currently works as a Senior Network Architect in New York City, New York.
An insatiable interest in science and unbending commitment to reason makes his first novel, The Room, a story of a life grounded in both. His second novel, To Your Own Self Be True, follows with the same intention. Burnished Bridge is a short novella set in the same town as the novel series and is a love story with a twist. Eyes In This World, a series ending novel was published in September 2013.
Ghost In the Park - a science fiction love story novella was published April 2016. Now experience Ghost In The Park as an audiobook. June 2023
Not Afraid: Short Stories and Essays was published July 2023
He pursued a musical career as a singer and lyricist, after leaving college. In the early 1980s he was the lead singer for One Hand Clap and then Fine Malibus, with Steve Stevens, current guitarist and song writer for Billy Idol. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, Ray was engineer and co-owner of MANNIK Productions, a recording studio in the Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, New York. In addition to lyrics, Ray, wrote a monthly column about pro audio for a music trade magazine, American Liverpool.
Later moving into the field of technology as a network engineer and then architect, he wrote for the technology panel of a regional newspaper, Times Herald Record, and was the primary writer of articles based on home technology for the website New Technology Home. Ray currently works as a Senior Network Architect in New York City, New York.
An insatiable interest in science and unbending commitment to reason makes his first novel, The Room, a story of a life grounded in both. His second novel, To Your Own Self Be True, follows with the same intention. Burnished Bridge is a short novella set in the same town as the novel series and is a love story with a twist. Eyes In This World, a series ending novel was published in September 2013.
Ghost In the Park - a science fiction love story novella was published April 2016. Now experience Ghost In The Park as an audiobook. June 2023
Not Afraid: Short Stories and Essays was published July 2023
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 16, 2012
A short, but thought-provoking read! Melnik brings philosophical and scientific ideas together with endearing characters and a simple plot. Some might classify this as a science fiction book, but I think its meaning goes deeper than that. Definitely gave me something to think about!
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August 2, 2020From the time Harry began choosing his own books from the library, he chose science. Harry, a warm-hearted, hard-working computer wiring technician with a talent for all things mechanical, believes without exception that for everything that happens, there is a natural reason. He believes that when we're born, we're given only existence. Everything we do from there, what we learn and what we encounter, gives us value or not.
Armed only with these beliefs, Harry now faces a world of hurt - and, beyond the hurt, a chance for a new love.
As his divorce becomes final, he struggles on limited means to maintain a happy relationship with his two young daughters. His mother is dying, and in her last days, she's delusional and living in a painful past. Harry's brother Malcolm, with whom he shared a childhood of abuse at the hands of their brutal father, is long estranged from both Harry and their mother, and refuses to visit her on her deathbed.
He can't stop the thoughts as emotions once hidden away now must be dealt with as old wounds are exposed.
Into all this remembered anxiety and sadness walks Lacie, the daughter of the local pub-keeper. She's everything Harry always wanted the love of his life to be: compassionate, generous, lithe and lovely, with a heart big enough to match his. She stirs in him feelings he thought were long dead.
But, apart from a sweet and sensuous beginning, the romance must wait, as Harry faces his mother's death, and a confrontation with his brother he knows will be ugly.
Then it happens, a cosmic event, centered in the room in which young Harry and Malcolm hid from their father's tyranny, which transforms Harry's very existence. In the final moments of his mother's life, Harry becomes immersed in an extraordinary happening, one that will change his life forever.
Set in Washingtonville, a friendly hamlet in New York 's lovely Hudson Valley , "The Room" is about life passages, and the possibilities of a universe we are only beginning to comprehend. The room of the title is a place of cosmic convergence, a repository of memory, and a place where pain and sadness resides and their memories linger. It's a place of both painful life and sad death that comes with regrets and desire for healing old wounds, or at least apologizing for old wrongs.
Although Harry finally meets a woman who understands and truly loves him, the cosmos takes a different path. He's left to wonder if love can transcend a universe, and discovers that what goes wrong in life sometimes matters as much as what goes right.
This novel is intended as a work of imagination, but is not intended as a work of science fiction. In Harry's belief system, as in mine, science is not fiction. It is a reality of the most all-encompassing kind. It's a reality where the cosmos is far more bizarre and interesting than any pseudo-science could ever offer.
Armed only with these beliefs, Harry now faces a world of hurt - and, beyond the hurt, a chance for a new love.
As his divorce becomes final, he struggles on limited means to maintain a happy relationship with his two young daughters. His mother is dying, and in her last days, she's delusional and living in a painful past. Harry's brother Malcolm, with whom he shared a childhood of abuse at the hands of their brutal father, is long estranged from both Harry and their mother, and refuses to visit her on her deathbed.
He can't stop the thoughts as emotions once hidden away now must be dealt with as old wounds are exposed.
Into all this remembered anxiety and sadness walks Lacie, the daughter of the local pub-keeper. She's everything Harry always wanted the love of his life to be: compassionate, generous, lithe and lovely, with a heart big enough to match his. She stirs in him feelings he thought were long dead.
But, apart from a sweet and sensuous beginning, the romance must wait, as Harry faces his mother's death, and a confrontation with his brother he knows will be ugly.
Then it happens, a cosmic event, centered in the room in which young Harry and Malcolm hid from their father's tyranny, which transforms Harry's very existence. In the final moments of his mother's life, Harry becomes immersed in an extraordinary happening, one that will change his life forever.
Set in Washingtonville, a friendly hamlet in New York 's lovely Hudson Valley , "The Room" is about life passages, and the possibilities of a universe we are only beginning to comprehend. The room of the title is a place of cosmic convergence, a repository of memory, and a place where pain and sadness resides and their memories linger. It's a place of both painful life and sad death that comes with regrets and desire for healing old wounds, or at least apologizing for old wrongs.
Although Harry finally meets a woman who understands and truly loves him, the cosmos takes a different path. He's left to wonder if love can transcend a universe, and discovers that what goes wrong in life sometimes matters as much as what goes right.
This novel is intended as a work of imagination, but is not intended as a work of science fiction. In Harry's belief system, as in mine, science is not fiction. It is a reality of the most all-encompassing kind. It's a reality where the cosmos is far more bizarre and interesting than any pseudo-science could ever offer.
March 2, 2014
A very enjoyable story that really gets you thinking about the universe and what we really know. About how limiting some of our beliefs are and told in a really engaging style that quickly drew me in to the authors way of thinking. I didn't put it down until I had finished it which is always the mark of a good book.
March 9, 2014
A very enjoyable and thought provoking read. I can see from the mixed reviews that it isn't going to be to everyone's liking but I found it well written and it sits well with my own beliefs. I also like Mr. Melniks style of writing, it's clear and concise and you never get lost. Looking for the next one now.
March 14, 2014
Clever, thought provoking, it may not be for everyone, but for me the blending of philosophical and scientific ideas works really well. The book is well written and I think deserves to be widely read.
September 5, 2011
mmmm .... style was a little clunky - a bit self conscious, OK but something was not quite right about it for me - perhaps a little overt/simplistic - not subtle
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews