Home :: Books :: Gay & Lesbian  

Arts & Photography
Audio CDs
Audiocassettes
Biographies & Memoirs
Business & Investing
Children's Books
Christianity
Comics & Graphic Novels
Computers & Internet
Cooking, Food & Wine
Entertainment
Gay & Lesbian

Health, Mind & Body
History
Home & Garden
Horror
Literature & Fiction
Mystery & Thrillers
Nonfiction
Outdoors & Nature
Parenting & Families
Professional & Technical
Reference
Religion & Spirituality
Romance
Science
Science Fiction & Fantasy
Sports
Teens
Travel
Women's Fiction
Invisible Life : A Novel

Invisible Life : A Novel

List Price: $12.95
Your Price: $9.71
Product Info Reviews

<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 .. 13 >>

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: A Must Read for Women
Review: Invisible Life was a true page-turner. I couldn't put the book down. I read this book in 2 days. The story although it was fiction opened my eyes to the possibility that there are alot of bi-sexual men. As I read I kept saying to myself, I don't want to know these things, however I couln't stop reading. Curiosity kept me turning the pages. Invisible Life delves into a world that most of us merely wonder about. It tells the story of one man coming to terms with his sexuality. He has always been attracted to women, however one night while in college, he has a sexual encounter with a man. He seems surprised that he actually did and liked such an encounter. I would recommend this book as a good read.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Disappointed
Review: My goal for this summer was to get to know E. Lynn Harris' work. Well perhaps I should've started with a later work of his because "Invisible Life", his first novel (if I'm not mistaken) was a total disappointment. Besides the fact that there were grammatical errors in the book (mispunctuations and misspellings), the characters were also underdeveloped and boring to say the least. This book is supposed to be the first of a trilogy, but it did a poor job with making me anticipate the second one.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Incredible Saga
Review: E. Lynn Harris is the best writer I have ever encountered. His written works of art are descripted, tasteful, intriguing and wonderfully exciting. For every page you read, you become more excited and eager to have more. E. Lynn Harris covers the lives of 5 to 6 friends and associates and their relationships and trials with marriage, homosexuality, heterosexuality, career, children and life. This is a must read. If you love this book you'll love the sequils "Just As I Am", "And This Too Shall Pass", "If This World Were Mine", "Abide With Me", and "Not A Day Goes By".

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: GREAT BOOK
Review: I READ THIS BOOK AND THOUGHT THAT IT WAS YES EVERY INTERSTING TO READ BECAUSE OF WHAT IT DEALS WITH. I THINK THAT THIS BOOK WOULD HELP OUT THE PEOPLE WHO THINK THAT BEING GAY OR BI OR LESBIEN IS WRONG FOR OR COMMUNITY!!

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Invisible Life
Review: Yes, this was an invisible life for Raymond Taylor. I could not believe what I was reading, but I did enjoy this book. After I read this book I was very observant about the men that I met. This book was good and I hope that he keeps on writing.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: Thank You E. Lynn Harris!
Review: I was hesistant about reading "Invisible Life" because of the gay characters, but now I'm glad I did. Harris is an awsome story teller. The characters were so real and genuine. I could feel Raymond's struggle with his sexuality. And I could feel Nicole's pain about Raymond's betrayal. I finished this book in one afternoon, and cried through the last sixty pages. This book left me with a better understanding of homosexuality. Before I just viewed it as a life style choice that some people made. But now with the help of Mr. Harris I see that homosexuality is much more complex and deeper than a simple choice.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: A complete waste of money . . .
Review: Although I am usually an avid reader of books about politics and religion, I thought that a brief foray into the world of gay literature would give my critical thinking skills a welcome rest. What I discovered when I read this book, however, was that my brain had shut down entirely. One of the reasons why I bought "Invisible Life" was because it is listed as PlanetOut's number one book for gay fiction. After reading it, I see no qualities in the writing that even deem it suitable for publication; how it became a bestseller is beyond my comprehension.

The writing style, as many other reviewers have pointed out, is extremely trite and childish. I am fully confident that given the same story, I, as well as many others, could've written a better book than E. Lynn Harris did. The characters seem very superficial, and their actions are often things that you would never see happen in real life. Usually, when reading fiction, I pick out a character that I identify with and I "become" that character when reading the book. I could not do that in this book, partly because, as some of the other reviewers have pointed out, there is hardly any character development whatsoever. Furthermore, the plot is almost as ridiculous as the characters are. The entire plot seems to be focused around getting the main character into his next sex scene, which is also poorly written, I might add.

Overall, I would say that "Invisible Life" was a huge disappointment. I forced myself to finish the book to see if there were some redemptive qualities in the end. Finding none, I literally threw the book away. A landfill is probably the most appropriate place for such a terrible piece of writing.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Page-turner as it's Finest
Review: Harris, allows us to venture the seasons of Raymond Winston Tyler Jr's, life from, his first love with high school girlfriend Sela, his first intimate relationship with a man (Kelvin), his struggle to distinguish between the love he has for Nicole and Quinn, his friends Kyle, J.J. and Kelvin's fiancee' Candance, as well as his parents and little brother Kirby.

Tyler's character shows that the capacity of love and to be loved has no boundaries, irregardless of his sexual preference.

This novel is so beautifully written, I completed it in 2 days. I look forward to reading all of E. Lynn Harris work of art.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: A Story That Needed to Be Told But Was Poorly Written
Review: I read this book when it first came out. I met and spoke with Mr. Harris briefly when he gave a lecture at my university in 1997. I am glad he wrote this book because he is telling the world what they should know about the invisible lives of black men and the women that they hurt. I think the author's writing style is extremely simplistic but I felt it was decent for a first novel. This book really made an impression on me because it was really my first look at how difficult life can be for a gay black man. One thing that I did not like about it was how Mr. Harris gave the impression through his depiction of Ray that most black men have these feelings and struggle with them. He seemed to give the impression that any man could be turned on to homosexuality if he found a man who was persistent enough which I don't believe at all. I never read anymore of Mr. Harris's books for that reason. However I do applaud his efforts to expose the lies carried on by men in our community.

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: so very sad
Review: After seeing this book on several bibliographies (re: bisexuality), I decided to take a look at it. What I most deeply regret is that I bought this thing...I actually PAID for it. My mistake. Don't follow my bad example! Harris' writing is just plain bad, there's no way around it. When he mentions "Martini and Rossi Asti Spumante" like it's a fine champagne, you know something's wrong. The characters are thinly drawn and the plot fails to be compelling (largely due to the Junior High-grade writing level).

How Harris has gotten to be so well-known is perplexing. Maybe his writing has improved since this poorly written novel. Maybe not. "Invisible Life" may be easy to swallow, but if you have even a single critical bone in your body you should stay well away from it (or suffer the frustration that I went through).

While the perspective of the bisexual African-American may be under represented (if at all), this book will in no way enlighten or inspire you. Read James Baldwin's "Another Country," please, even if the only "bisexual" content can be found in the inclusion of equally well-written gay and straight characters. At least you will be treated to a well-written novel. "Brother to Brother," published by Alyson, is an excellent collection of poetry and prose by black gay authors. I do wish I could suggest an explicitly bisexual African-American oriented book but as yet I am unaware of such a novel. You won't find anything worth your time here, though.

I encourage Mr. Harris to learn his craft if he is going to continue filling the shelves with his words. I encourage book-buyers to seek out better things to spend their money on in order to prevent substandard authors from dominating the market.


<< 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 .. 13 >>

© 2004, ReviewFocus or its affiliates