Remedy is a novel about a life author E. R. Sanchez has become tangentially familiar with. His book tells the tale of an everyman, a hardworking, American man who does everything right but still finds himself on the wrong side of fate.Philip McCalister is that man. In Remedy, McCalister is the reverse hero who is dishonorably discharged from the glory of his previous life-the life he wrought with his bare hands.Sanchez's book is about a man who is in the grips of a dramatic tragedy. As he sees his life fall apart, his business and his family destroyed, and he is left with few options: to belly up and accept defeat, to bury himself alive-to live the life of a vanquished warrior in disgrace.

But he does not accept these options. He counters defeat by whatever means he can.Wouldn't you?Remedy begins with McCalister and his attorney heading toward the entrance of the Los Angeles Superior Courthouse in Van Nuys, California. The walk up the steps is an allegory of the journey toward the fate that awaits him. The literal and figurative journey triggers a series of flashbacks that parade through McCalister's mind. The flashbacks are the device by which Sanchez tells the story of Remedy.As he goes through his past in his mind, McCalister's flashbacks become interspersed with what is currently happening to him. McCalister's cause-and-effect visions tell the story of his life.

Unfortunately, in the real world, Sanchez's book is becoming more of a commonality. Remedy could be the autobiography of hundreds of displaced workers, regular people stripped of their livelihoods, dignity, options, and good, hard-won lives. With the American dream dashed for so many, Remedy is an excruciatingly timely and relevant look at what is really going on in America today. If you are reading Remedy and you are struggling to make ends meet, Sanchez's book will come at you hard. The well-told story will evoke many questions that are tough to answer.