The Havana Room

Rating:
Summary: Finally a Literary Page Turner
Review: Colin Harrison's latest novel, The Havana Room, finally fulfills our need for a mystery with "must-turn-the-page" excitement combined with elegant and literary prose. Bill Wyeth is a hero for our times, a Manhattan lawyer who loses it all and believes he might even deserve it. Following Wyeth's descent into the habits of those New Yorker's who don't live on Park Avenue, yet constitute the heartbeat of this city, is a trip worth taking. To those who complain the plot is "unbelieveable", I can only say read the Times if you must be entertained by reality. I will take a trip to the Havana Room anytime.

Rating:
Summary: Great Start
Review: For the first third of this book I thought I had found one of those magical times when I read slowly to savor the writing and the mood. The characters were mysterious and I could not wait see the unraveling. Unfortunately, things turned very ordinary, even pitiful. Stock character and stereotypes began to act in predictable ways. Ultimately so disappointing.

Rating:
Summary: Not Half Bad
Review: Fun. Worth reading. I enjoyed Harrison's commentaries and expositions on various subjects. Many interesting byways. But nothing totally unexpected in the plot -- no place where you suddenly stop reading, look up, and say, "Oh --- my --- god!!". Marred a little bit by several minor flaws in the plot.

Rating:
Summary: Other than two glaring and obvious errors, the book is a
Review: great read. It kept me up two nights and no other writer has done that for a long, long time.

I rank Harrison up there with Scott Turow, Sabin Willett, Richard Dooling, Michael Connelly, Dennis Lehane and James Lee Burke. Much better than Grisham or Dan Brown.

He really captures the essence of New York City.

A gritty and really different style of writing. Noir-ish is one way to describe it.

He's also got the suspense thing down cold. I will buy his other previous books as this one was so good.

The obvious error is putting future Hall of Famer Cal Ripken, Jr. at second base rather than shortstop. I can't begin to understand how this mistake was made and got past both proofreaders and editors at FSG. You don't even have to be a baseball fan to know what position Ripken excelled at.

At a BARE minimium, LOOK IT UP!

What are those hot shot Manhattan editors being paid for anyway???

The other mistake at page 283 is less obvious but still annoying.

Book would get five stars but for these errors.

Rating:
Summary: Complex thriller
Review: Great writer, I was intrigued from page 1. Lots of twists and turns. Complex plot, check it out.

Rating:
Summary: So sad
Review: Harrison can tell a great story, Manhattan Nocturne and Bodies Electric are terrific, but the Havanna Room simply blows polar bears. The first ten pages are great, they suck you into the story, but like the main character's life, the rest of the book unravels into a bizzare and untenable story line. I could forgive all that if the book would have been at least entertaining, but it wasn't. The worst part about the story was what actually happens in the Havanna Room. It's as much a dissappointment as the rest of the book. I'd pass.

Rating:
Summary: SHOULD HAVE STOPPED AFTER FIRST 50 PAGES
Review: Havana Room started with an explosive, accidental death that could happen in the home of all of us. The resulting downward spiraling of the main character's life was stunningly sudden and believable. It seemed like we had the makings of another Bonfire of the Vanites where one wrong turn, one wrong decision, and everything can fall in on us all at once. Regretably, that's the highlight of this thoroughly absurd tale of characters one more wretched than the next. It was silly and repetitive with no character seemingly deserving of redemption or reconciliation.

Rating:
Summary: Damn good
Review: I am a writer and everyone is a critic so let's begin. When Colin Harrison wrote "Afterburn" he was criticized for being brutal (at least his characters were) so I believe that he dulled his edges with "The Havana Room" but that's alright.

Enough posters here get into the story so I won't but I will say this: it only takes a single mistake and suddenly your entire life falls out from under you. Period. Harrison does a great job of infusing this noir story with dread, surprise and suspense-yes, just like living in New York City. While Bill Wyeth might not be the tough guy we would all like him to be he is exceedingly decent. While parts of the story are predictable (and the author takes a little while to get there) that's okay. It is a satisfying read that kept me turning the page and I'd love to see Sidney Lumet (Q&A, Dog Day Afternoon, Night Falls on Manhattan) direct the filmed version.

If you want an interesting story that omits the pulp of other pandering authors on the best seller list who simply repeat themselves and are afraid of offending anyone read "The Havana Room."

Rating:
Summary: A Fast-Paced, Intelligent Urban Thriller
Review: I had never read any of Colin Harrison's prior New York-based novels, and I picked up The Havana Room after stumbling across some favorable reviews. I must say this was an impressive read, and his style is instantly catching. The book reminded me a little of Tom Wolfe (although about 300 pages lighter than a typical Wolfe tome), and maybe a better-written version of Jay McInerny.

The book starts out with a bang, as high-powewed Manhattan attorney Bill Wyeth comes home early from a trip, and unwittingly causes a tragedy involving a child sleeping over his house for his son's birthday. The fallout from the event is swift and extraordinary, (yet believable), and soon Wyeth is on his own, without a job, and with his high-brow society friends shunning him as if he had the plague. You can't help but think of Conrad from Wolfe's Bonfire of the Vanities.

I thought the book would then disintegrate into a tale of a plucky lawyer forced to start over again and pull himself together when everything has been taken from him, and frankly wasn't looking forward to the rest. What a pleasant surprise. Instead the book got much more interesting, as Wyeth gets entangled in the lives of Jay Rainey and Allison Sparks (who he meets at a swank Manhattan steakhouse where he finds comfort in a routine of daily visits). Allison asks Bill to help her boyfriend Jay Rainey close a mysterious business deal, involving Jay's hasty purchase of a run down office building in exchange for some prime waterfront farmland on the North Fork of Long Island.

The more he learns about Allison, Jay, and both properties, the more Wyeth realizes he doesn't know, and the rest of the novel involves him peeling back the layers of mystery that surround the secrets buried at the farm, the curious interest Jay had in the office building, the secret passages in Jay's diary and his bizarre mood swings, and the ultra-confidential monthly gatherings in the restaurant's top-secret, invitation only "Havana Room."

I must confess that I was a little underwhelmed with the sercrets of the Havana Room when those mysteries were ultimately revealed, but the actions in the room ultimately were crucial to the plot, and so I wasn't too disappointed. Ultimately Harrison wraps things up rather nicely, tying up loose ends and revealing most of the secrets of the book. While the novel worked on many levels, (some reviewers mentioned it as some kind of fable regarding the excesses of our society), I thought ultimately the over-riding theme of the novel involved the special, enduring bond that a parent has for his/her children. I couldn't wait to get to it every night, and blew through it in very short order. You will be hooked by page 25.



Rating:
Summary: A disappointment
Review: I loved Bodies Electric, Harrison's first book. Each one since I have loved less. This one I didn't even like. I read all the way to the end, hoping, I guess for some revelation that would surprise me. Instead, it started with an improbable concept - a guy who has been fired from his high-powered job, is basically bankrupt, and has no hopes of working for any real money again, decides to eat an an expensive steak house every single day. Why? Because the author needed him there to meet other characters and get the plot lumbering forward. Then you take more unlikely scenarios - an addiction like none you've ever heard of, a character whose sickness seems to wax and wane when it's called for by the plot, a bizarre suicide method - and what you are left with is an over-written mess that never surprises.