Harry Downs, the main character of Robert MIchael Congemi's Millennium Blues, the first of three novels together entitled The Millennium Trilogy, styles himself as a man of his times in 2001 -- anxiety-ridden, misunderstood, searching for meaning. A mysterious heart ailment first noticed after a 5K run by the sixty-year-old, book-reading landlord results in a more or less spiritual journey enacted before it is too late to mend his relationships with his ex-wife, children, girlfriends, tenants, etc. The journey is not easy, though he is somewhat guided by his alcoholic, thoroughly disaffected, philosophizing friend Reinhold Dearborne. Suddenly earnest in his thoughts and behavior, Harry tries decency, reasonableness, politics, and religion among other adult aspirations, in order to make himself right with his world before a possible killer heart attack resolves his issues for him. The novel approaches its end as Harry is in sight of his goals.
Robert Michael Congemi lives in Albany, New York, and teaches at SUNY's Empire State College. Millennium Blues is his fifth book and first novel. Find out more at robertcongemi.com
