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by Bert Nemcik (Author)
Open Hearth is a saga of 20th Century steel workers and steel making as seen through the eyes of John "Shadow" Kordetski who lies in his bed dying of lung cancer. As the last five hours of his existence slowly pass, he remembers the important moments in his life. His story is personal, but symbolizes the struggle of the American blue collar worker to rise to middle class status and then decline. Shadow's father dies leaving his five children to be cared for by his immigrant wife. He and his sisters work hard to make it through the Depression. When he gets into trouble with the law, he is sent to a CCC camp in Wyoming where he first experiences manhood. He quits school in the eighth grade and goes to work in the steel mill. He and his sisters save money, buy another home and move their mother out of a mill ghetto where they grew up. Shadow serves in WWII in the South Pacific, comes home, returns to work in the mill and marries Regina, his one and only love. They build their own home, raise three children and live the American Dream. Every major event in the 20th Century affects the Kordetski family in ways that define the experience of middle class America. Using a convention of past and present chapters to explore his story, what unfolds is a tale rich in the history of industrial America when men and women graduate from high school and still make a decent living, raise a family and pursue happiness in any way they choose. Open Hearth becomes an open heart of the American working class facing a transition into the digital age without any buffers to shield it from the onslaught of a new era. It depicts the merciless denial of the right of working people to share in the profit of the corporations now holding personhood status and implacable in their desire to maximize profits and minimize costs at the expense of working people.
