Title: A Love Song for the Sad Man in the White Coat
Author: Roe Horvat
Publisher: Self-Published/Kindle Unlimited
Length: 205 Pages
Category: Contemporary
At a Glance: With compassion and tenderness his story unfolds and draws you in, leaving you a bit wrung out but confident that life will get better for both Simon and Majet, that love will bridge the gap caused by their crippling self-doubt.
Reviewed By: Sammy
Blurb: Simon had always expected love to feel different than this. Whether it was his Catholic upbringing or the poetry he’d read – Simon had thought that true love would be uplifting, fulfilling, that it would give a meaning to his loitering, and add joy to his leisure. But not this kind of love. This love was a flesh-eating monster, sharp-clawed and evil-eyed, ravishing his mind with medieval cruelty.
Dr Simon Mráz is a respected specialist and lecturer at the Charles University in Prague. He is a serious man, responsible. His students call him The Cruel Doctor Frost not because he’s unkind, but because of his unwavering, ice-cold composure. As a psychiatrist, he values sanity. And sanity can be found in work, restraint, and self-control.
Not many know of that one time in the past when The Cruel Doctor Frost lost his cool. His ill-advised, secret affair with a student left Simon deeply wounded. Since that day, every minute of Simon’s life has been a struggle to remain sane, functioning. He’s managed so far – as long as he is needed, as long as his work makes a difference, Simon can scrape together enough strength to get up in the morning and run off the nightmares. But when his friends begin drifting away, his beloved protégé becomes independent, and the man who bereaved Simon of his precious sanity might return… Simon’s mind and body stop responding to his impressive willpower.
Review: A Love Song for the Sad Man in the White Coat is perhaps one of the saddest yet most hopeful novels I have encountered in a long time. Depression is never an easy subject matter to tackle, so to have the major voice in a story be one that is undeniably affected by this pervasive and debilitating issue, and somehow write their narrative with a hope for a more stable future, is challenging. Luckily for us, author Roe Horvat not only takes on this task but does so with grace, poetic lyricism and compassion.
Two troubled men meet, one a student, the other his teacher. To interact beyond a professional level is taboo, and yet there is instant friction between Majet and Simon that explodes into a passion neither can deny. Simon has been rejected one too many times—first by his uber religious mother and silent father, by former lovers and some colleagues, and even by his own cruelly analytical mind that finds himself lacking in so many ways. He attempts to drive the demons away by taking punishing runs and keeping his life severely ordered to the point of compulsion. When he allows himself to give in to the hope that Majet will stay, that he will become more than a convenient bed partner, he dares to think that perhaps this almost painful relationship can morph into something sweeter, saner, permanent. When Majet suddenly disappears, leaving behind his younger sister and a father dead by apparent suicide, Simon does what he must—cares for the sister, Marta, and picks up the pieces of his broken heart. He pours all his attention and affection on the first and denies the latter, driving his emotions deep into a dark space inside—feelings that try every so often to claw their way out into the light. When they do, Simon runs and locks the door up tight again.
When the story begins, three years have passed and Marta is moving out and moving on. She decides that she must find her brother, realizing that she should have done so years before, and that the real reason Majet left was because she could not believe that their father was the abuser Majet knew him to be. Majet is an enigma in many ways in this book. He endures the abuse of a drunken father to save his sister from harm, hiding it all so effectively that Mart never suspects. When Majet announces to his sister they will be moving out, he does so on the heels of his father announcing that he has a terminal illness, and Marta cannot understand how her brother could be so cruel and callous as to leave their father alone. Yes, Majet had done his job of masking the pain and abuse well, too well, but not from Simon. Simon saw the bruises, the anger that built in Majet, the fear of leaving Marta alone when their father was at home. It would be Simon who helps Marta understand how cruel her father had been and, unknowingly, it would be Simon who helps Marta understand she must get in contact with her brother, Simon who cannot bear the thought of never again seeing the man he loved, while knowing that Majet thought so little of their love as to leave without a word. Majet’s return will be the catalyst for Simon’s ultimate breakdown—and possibly the light that will set him on the path to coping with his crippling depression as well.
This is perhaps the longest synopsis I have ever written for a novel, and I know without a doubt it does not even begin to unpack this breathtaking story. If you are looking for some sappy or sweet, easy romance, then this is not the book for you. However, if you are patient, if you are ready to dive into the dark places with Simon, and hold your breath as he discovers how much he needs a chance to heal and see that he is worthy of being loved, then you cannot ask for a better story than this one.
This is not Majet or Marta’s story, although they are key players within it. No, this is all about Simon, a man who has so thoroughly gotten lost in a spiral of self-doubt and self-loathing that he cannot help but push away those who love him the most. Pain and depression are insidious; they take a person hostage and pull them down into a whirlpool of sadness that barely allows them to breathe. For Simon, this is life, but, and this is huge, it is not the end. Author Roe Horvat gives Simon a way back. It is realistic and tentative, but hopeful, and just perfect for this novel. Wisely, this author doesn’t make all Simon’s problems disappear and have him ride off in the sunset, happily ever after. Instead, Simon intelligently recognizes his need for help, pursues it, and grudgingly accepts it. There is an air of peace at the end of this story that allows a reader to step away sure in the knowledge that the characters they have visited will be okay, more than okay, they will be loved and love in return.
With haunting, descriptive passages that melt into troubled inner thoughts and emotionally tangled physical encounters, this novel paints the story of a man who is hanging on by his fingertips and who is desperate to love and be loved. With compassion and tenderness his story unfolds and draws you in, leaving you a bit wrung out but confident that life will get better for both Simon and Majet, that love will bridge the gap caused by their crippling self-doubt. This is definitely a story of hope, and of love, and I highly recommend it to you.
You can buy A Love Song for the Sad Man in the White Coat here:
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The Novel Approach Reviews 
Thanks for sharing your wonderful review. I really loved this book, too. I hope others will read it.
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