Rating: 
Summary: What a waste of time...why can't we rate NO stars?
Review: I did not like anything about this book...except maybe the faithful wife. She had character and commitment...something altogether lacking in the central character of this sordid story. I would like to think that all New Yorkers are not so yellow, cowardly and vain as this man. I won't be reading anything else by this author...I have better things to do...like polish silver; ironing; raking the yard; running laps.
Rating:
Summary: Abysmal
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: RICHLY AMBIENT SEX AND CRIME, WEAKENED BY STRAINED PLOT.
Review: As a dazzling dream Gotham and a nightmarish Big Poison Apple merge, author Harrison creates a world where silk dresses and street grit intermingle in sensually evocative grandeur. The author aims to imbue a contemporary New York crime story with the vaporous, yet hard-edged aura of classic film noir. But like one of that movie genre's landmark's, Bogart's "The Big Sleep," the evocative atmospherics and intriguing characters of "Manhattan Nocturne" often push plot and pacing to the margin.
Th
Rating: 
Summary: Fantastic writer with rare writing talents
Review: Beautiful prose-style writing! This is the only novel I have found so far that could be compared to "Gold Coast" by Nelson Demile. Wonderful narrative way of writing, a technique only could be created by a real talented writer. Every sentence is well written and worthy of being perused carefully and slowly. Once I've read about 1/3 part of it, I just couldn't wait to grap his other works to be ready in line to continue. Don't treat this book with anything of any genre, just appreciate it as a wonderfully constructed story. Fantastic characters, Porter Wren is especially an unique one, created by a most talented writer. If you failed to enjoy and/or appreciate this writer's "Dark Humor" as well as his wonderful and smooth writing skill, then you might have to admit that you are not a mature enough "thinking reader."
Rating:
Summary: Fantastic writer with rare writing talents
Review: Beautiful prose-style writing! This is the only novel I have found so far that could be compared to "Gold Coast" by Nelson Demile. Wonderful narrative way of writing, a technique only could be created by a real talented writer. Every sentence is well written and worthy of being perused carefully and slowly. Once I've read about 1/3 part of it, I just couldn't wait to grap his other works to be ready in line to continue. Don't treat this book with anything of any genre, just appreciate it as a wonderfully constructed story. Fantastic characters, Porter Wren is especially an unique one, created by a most talented writer. If you failed to enjoy and/or appreciate this writer's "Dark Humor" as well as his wonderful and smooth writing skill, then you might have to admit that you are not a mature enough "thinking reader."
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: 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: Captivating and thrilling
Review: Especially for a New Yorker, this novel accurately captures the surrealism of New York and its people. Could not put this book down.
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: Really three and a half stars...
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.
|
