Manhattan Nocturne

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic writer with rare writing talents
Review: After suffering through Harrison's Afterburn, one of the worst novels I've ever read, I began wondering if maybe Afterburn was a fluke, that Harrison really had some ability. Well, guess what -- he doesnt, to judge by this tale of mechanistic sex and corporate malfeasance in the "dark seamy" underbelly of Manhattan. Newspaper columnist has torrid affair with love bunny. Cheats on wife and kids. There's stolen videocassettes, abandoned property, Rudy Guiliani, sex sex and more sex, utterly unrealistic dialogue, a lot of blathering about meaning of life. I'm supposed to like these people? I'm supposed to care? Does Harrison know how to write a sympathetic character? Does he know how to write, period? The jury has deliberated, and the verdict is in: Harrison is guilty of major crimes against literature. Off to the salt mines with you, buddy. It did wonders for Dostoevsky.

Rating:
Summary: Great Thriller, Warts and All
Review: Colin Harrison is an enigma. He writes some of the best thrillers out there, but he has a real tendency to frustrate me as a reader even while I'm marveling over the brilliance of his work. Harrison is an absolutely spectacular writer, and his gifts are especially well suited to his particular niche: the thriller in which the ordinary man finds himself in dangerous and threatening situations. One of the things I like about Harrison's thrillers (with the exception of his most recent and most disappointing book, "Afterburn,") is that his heroes tend to find themselves dragged down into desperate struggles because of their own human frailty than because of some madman terrorist bent on revenge or a serial killer in the process of "becoming."

In "Manhattan Nocturne," the protagonist, struggling under the prodigious name Porter Wren, is a newspaper columnist who falls for a seductive beauty, who wants his help in recovering a lost videotape made by her dead film director husband. Meanwhile, a powerful media magnate wants the same tape, and threatens to expose Wren if he doesn't find the tape for his (the magnate's) purposes. The plot leans a bit toward the needlessly rococo at times, and I felt the ending piled it on a bit too thick, but it still gripping, page-turning, and utterly pleasurable to read.

This is a novel with tension, drama, interesting and three-dimensional characters, and genuine energy. But like Harrison's inexplicably out-of-print masterpiece "Bodies Electric" (very possibly the best thriller I've ever read), "Manhattan Nocturne" gets bogged down a bit under the weight of the author's detailed sexual ruminations. I am not a prude, but I find myself thinking "enough already" pretty quickly. However, I will say in defense of these protracted sex scenes that they are relevant to the plot and to the nature of his protagonist(s). Harrison seems genuinely interested in how identity is linked to sexuality, a worthwhile subject, and because his protagonists tend to fall down their slippery slopes owning to their sexual desire short-circuiting their common sense, the pornographic fantasias always come across as guiltily relevant. Do we need to know the details of every position Harrison's mind can conjure? Probably not. From an over-heard bit of conversation in one of the first scenes, we get the sense that this is a novel fueled by the fear of impotence (indeed, the protagonist confesses, at one point, that a familial history of prostate problems leaves him feeling that his sexual days are always numbered), so we must remember at all times that this is a pre-Viagra thriller.

One of the other reviewers complains that Harrison goes on and on about things that have nothing to do with the plot, but Harrison's writing is strong enough that I'd read a novel he wrote about taking out the garbage. His dissertations on moral issues, poverty, New York culture, sexuality, etc. are all at the heart of what makes Harrison a superior writer. "Manhattan Nocturne" is not a flawless novel, but it is without doubt a superior novel and a must-read for anyone who expects more from their thrillers than the paper-thin characters, the by-the-numbers plotting and the clunky writing that we find scattered all over the best-seller lists.

Rating:
Summary: EXCELLENT!!!
Review: I could not put this book down. What a fantastic writer... takes the mystery genre and turns it into high art. Kudos.

Rating:
Summary: Harrison is a master
Review: I have to agree with much of what Mr. Brenner said in his review of this novel. Yes, it does start out very well, and continues to hold interest, but the end sort of peters out, almost as if Mr. Harrison was either rushed or just got bored with what he was writing. The end of a mystery should be the most intense part, in my opinion, and the beginning and middle seemed to hold more intensity than the conclusion.

But, there are a great many things I enjoyed about this book. The "devil may care" attitude of narration was one of them. Porter seems to know he's not a "good" person in others eyes, but it doesn't seem to affect his storytelling. He doesn't apologize to the reader, but is trying to work things out for himself.

I also enjoyed the character of Caroline. Her personality wasn't immediately shown as the typical girl of noir novels who comes into the detective's (in this case journalist's) office with a hat pulled over one eye, wanting him to find out who killed her late husband. She subtley changes as the relationship between her and Porter becomes more familiar. Even in the end, although much is revealed, she remains not quite mysterious, just not understood.

This isn't a bad read, but it is disappointing. I'd like to see Harrison avoid the realm of mystery and perhaps try something more general. The writing is good, even though the story is somewhat lacking.

Rating:
Summary: Harrison is a master
Review: I wonder if reviewers so offended by Harrison's writing are perhaps in denial about their own base tendencies. We all have them, and Harrison obviously enjoys exploring the darker areas of humankind. But it's hard to deny his complete mastery of language, his ability to create real characters instead of the cardboard cutouts common in typical by-the-numbers thrillers. Manhattan Nocturne is a fantastic novel, and it would be nice if more authors cared this much about the craft and less about churning out boring novels once a year to satisfy their profit-hungry publishers.

Rating:
Summary: Great Beginning That Bottomed Out
Review: The first one hundred and fifty pages or so, Colin Harrison had me hooked. "Manhattan..." is the seamy story of a tabloid reporter named Porter Wren who risks not only his own life,but his wife and children's lives as well when he gets mixed up with a mysterious beauty named Caroline Crowley. She asks him to help investigate the murder of her husband, an acclaimed independant film maker ala Quentin Tarantino.As Porter's life begins to careen out of control it's easy to make comparisons with "The Bonfire of the Vanities", seeing as both present New York at it's most deplorable, and the people that inhabit the island not much higher than base animals driven by lust and greed. Although frankly that seems to be Harrison's argument for all of humanity, turning a devilshly good mystery morality war into a depressing and gory romp through the cesspools of The Big Apple. It's very well written, but the end was a letdown. Not just for it's wimpy resolution, but also for making me feel like I should pull a blanket over my head and not leave the house.

Rating:
Summary: Not quite
Review: Well, Harrison can write. Perhaps too much. One major problem for the novel: Sex. A little in this department goes a long way. I've read plenty of sex scenes in novels, going back to Sonny Corleone shaking the door in the Godfather during the wedding. Good writers seem to know how to place such scenes within the larger context of the novel. Especially so in crime novels. With Harrison however, there seems to be a pornographic line crossed. (Suggestion and mystery - forget it.) Or perhaps it's meant to be a commentary on America and voyeurism. Indeed, not far below the surface of Manhattan Nocturne are all kinds of commentaries - on sex, on celebrity, on film, on materialism and the power of money. All are worthy topics, but any novel that tries to tackle them all is bound to fail. Bound up in all these ruminations is the search for Truth, as Harrison reminds us through the mouths of several characters. I suppose that's why the character Porter Wren can offer up such clear eyed but intimate details on his lovemaking with his wife. (He's a journalist after all.) But other than revealing there is a mystery in her desires that has much to do with her, and little to do with him (other than fulfilling a big time male fantasy), it still doesn't reveal much about her other than suburban kinkiness. (And of course, she's a good mother.) The fact that Harrison returns to such bedroom scenes should be some sort of writing sin.

On the good side, Harrison does create some memorable characters (Caroline is a good femme fatale). In fact, Caroline's story within the story was more memorable than the actual story itself.. Dialogue sounds right. And the plot's not bad either, though twisty as hell, with something of a whimper ending. On the bad: continuous name dropping (Tarantino, Dan Quayle, Mayor Giuliani, etc.). Manhattan Nocturne is simply an attempt to write a Big Important Novel (much like Tom Wolfe's attempts). That never works. A smaller, more focused one would of been a better approach.