Race, color, religion, national origin, sex, familial status, and disability.

***

Alex is exhausted. Professional ideology has worn into cynicism as he struggles to maintain his family and sanity. Told in a cinematic style, Lack of Appeal explores two days, moment-by-moment, in the life of a municipal government complaint investigator. The public and the private sectors converge with such intensity that it's difficult to find any semblance of justice or resolution. Is Alex in control of the idealism or is the idealism in control of Alex?

The novel moves moment-by-moment and episodically through one long Monday of housing discrimination Complainant and Respondent interviews, public presentation, complaint intake duty, and epic community meetings; then, in climax, one vigorous Friday attempt to take on perceived mayoral administration apathy towards systemic dysfunction of civil rights law enforcement needed for the public. Chapters detail contemporary, unique, and accessible takes on forms of sexual harassment, race, religion, national origin, families with minor children, and disability, modeled after real-life discrimination case examples. The public administration sector, the non-profit sector, and the central individual are all challenged with the nature of what many readily-accepted views of "civil rights" are, aren't, and may-be. And, the main character's potential personal bias with his own profession while he tries to be civil.

Self-absorbed, personal memoir; objective (and objectified) expose on some civil rights, and "civil rights;" a descent into madness; and, with some lighter, humorous, and human touches along the way, this is a defining civil rights novel for the 21st Century.

About the author:

Nick Valenzuela's debut novel, Lack of Appeal, was published after he survived a 20+ year career investigating civil rights complaints for municipal and federal government. His extensive, groundbreaking fair housing and hate crime investigations led to benchmark case law for multiple protected classes from unlawful discrimination, but also to professional counseling. His writing is based on his experiences, masked as literary fiction.

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