Hunting in Harlem : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: What a flop!
Review: The opening paragraph was the best part of this novel. It offered great promise for an engaging story but failed to deliver. The story opens with three ex-cons being recruited by a community development organization to help return Harlem to black folks. As the author clunks along with the story, we learn of the many "accidents" that befall the undesirables in the neighborhood and get a few obviously placed statements about attributes that need to be acquired by African Americans. "Bobby actually believed in what Lester and the congressman were telling him, bought into all of it from the start. Horus was the same way, never questioning, never complaining." This is only one example of the didactic tone of the novel and the author's lack of creativity in trying to make his point. There was more than one instance when I felt that the author was actually trying to trick me into finishing the novel. Using an unsuccessful book, "The Great Work", written by one of the characters, Johnson discusses the mistreatment of black literature and uses this commentary to entice his reader to stick with the book. That ploy simply didn't work on me. After 100 pages into the novel I simply gave up. The writing is dull, the characters are flat and the story lacks any feel of realism. Furthermore, the story seems absent of language that engages the imagination or paints a picture. He dictates each chapter like a witness at a deposition. I'm not sure what other reviewers found in this book that I missed but I certainly can't recommend this one.