A Box Of Shorts

All the good stories are about life, with all its intricasies,its' shortcomings et al. Mke Proko's story-lines manage to delve into the complexeties of life, some having to do with life AND death but he balances all the plots with a deep sense of love. Whether it's a story about a soldier/hitman and his boss in "The Angel of Death" or a comical look at "The McFuddles" down in West Texas or an aging jazz musician who's still smitten with the girl in "A Song for Lena", love is at the heart of all the stories that Proko contributed to this tome. But you also get the feeling that the author has spent a great deal of time with all of these characters, his knowledge of them and their actions is too lucid for an ordinary writer of fiction. There is a richness to his characters and a dramatic sense to his prose,trying not to waste the reader's time with unnecessary language. The stories cover the gamut but each one is done like a painting separate from all the others. The stories go from extemely light to very dark and yet, by the end of the book, the characters will leave an indelible mark on the reader's heart.