The Havana Room

Rating:
Summary: This Could Be Colin Harrison's Breakthrough Novel
Review: There has been a lot of prepublication buzz about THE HAVANA ROOM by Colin Harrison. Everything you may have heard about this novel is true. It will be superglued to your hands, and to your mind, from practically the minute you begin reading it. There is only one way that I can describe how good it really is. After opening the book one morning and reading the first 319 pages in one sitting, I set the book down, shoveled the ice off of the driveway, and ran a few errands, all the while wondering how it would end. I simply wanted to make the experience of reading this spellbinding novel last a bit longer; I did not want it to end.

The most important lesson that one can learn about life is that every act carries its own potential for disaster, and that while there are ways to cut the odds, the house holds all the cards. This is a lesson that Bill Wyeth learns, at the cost of dear coin, in THE HAVANA ROOM.

Wyeth is a fabulously successful real estate attorney, still on the ascending arc of a brilliant career, when he commits an act of simple, almost offhand, courtesy that results in personal disaster. Within weeks he has lost his job, his family and his respect, while each day tolls his ever-deeper descent into his personal maelstrom.

The unplanned randomness of his life finds him entering a Manhattan steak house --- we never really learn its name --- where he finds himself slowly drawn into the web of Allison Sparks, the restaurant's attractive, enigmatic manager, and the Havana Room, a separate room in the restaurant where entrance is on an invitation-only basis and where what goes on is a closely held secret.

Wyeth and Sparks slowly form a conversational relationship, a relationship that begins a fateful culmination on the day that Sparks asks Wyeth to represent her friend, Jay Rainey, in a real estate transaction that must be concluded by midnight of that day. Wyeth has reservations about the transaction and his role in the matter almost from the beginning. The transaction, which amounts to a land swap involving a Manhattan building for some prime Long Island acreage owned by Rainey, brings Wyeth closer to Sparks at the price of ensnaring him in a mysterious, complex scenario that accelerates his downward spiral.

Wyeth is buffeted by a number of complex forces, among them a powerful Chilean businessman, a frightening hip-hop mogul, a farmer found frozen to a bulldozer and, most significantly, Rainey's obsessions, including his peculiar fixation on a fourteen-year-old British girl. The nexus connecting these seemingly disparate elements is ultimately located in THE HAVANA ROOM, where the denouement has the potential to ultimately result in disaster or redemption.

One of the most fascinating elements of THE HAVANA ROOM is the way in which Harrison keeps the plates containing different plot threads spinning while hypnotizing the reader to the extent that one can still see them rotating long after the book is done, and Harrison has taken his plates and poles, packed them up and gone home. But it is not just the exquisite plotting of the book that makes it such a delight. Harrison says more in a sentence than many writers do in a chapter, and more in a chapter than others do in an entire book. Harrison at one point gives, in a little more than three pages, a summary of the evolution of Manhattan real estate from its inception to the present. Is it complete? No. But after reading it, one could walk along Broadway in Times Square and feel the sense of history upon which the area is built.

At another point, when discussing Sparks, Harrison presents an interesting and bitingly accurate social and emotional commentary regarding the trajectory of the lives of the young, single women who come to work and live in Manhattan. His dissertation is only a few paragraphs long, yet contains more truth than any multiple DVD set chronicling a season of Sex and the City.

Harrison also has a way of making any character, no matter how secondary their role or fleeting their appearance, vibrant and real. This is true whether it involves a street punk on a subway stairway, an ex-cop running a down-at-the-heels diner, or a rap groupie strung out on heroin and the proximity of fortune. Perhaps Harrison's greatest strength, however, is his ability to infuse his characters with a quiet but strong nobility that enable them to make the best of a bad situation. In the end, all is not as it seems --- and if salvation is not at hand, there is at least the promise of it.

THE HAVANA ROOM may well be Harrison's breakthrough novel --- it certainly has that potential. It is a stunning triumph for him and a feast for the reader. Very highly recommended.

--- Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub

Rating:
Summary: Not believable story
Review: This book was easy to read. I read it in two days. But, I was not happy with the storyline. It was not believable. Too many things happened that would not happen in real life. The characters' emotional reactions to the events in the book did not seem appropriate. In other words, horrible things were happening and no one seemed outrageously scared or enraged. This is the book's major flaw.

The story was also a bit predictable. I kind of sensed where things were headed before I turned the pages. However, I kept reading it which indicates it was an okay book.

Rating:
Summary: A silly book masquerading as a mystery
Review: This book, advertised as "noir" mystery/thriller has a shallow and highly improbable as well as very convoluted plot. It hinges on interactions between a depressed attorney, a sexy restaurant hostess, a sick client, a Chinese chef and some off-the-wall mobsters. While this mix may sound potentially attractive it is based on some ubelievable suppositions, lousy editing and even contains spelling errors ("hyperbolic for 'hyperbaric'). I kept waiting for some satisfactory ending but it never came, just a shoddy tying-together of too many variables that never reached a believable level. Save your money.

Rating:
Summary: An interesting and enjoyable yarn
Review: This is the first Colin Harrison book for me. Other reviewers obviously prefered some of his earlier efforts and this book relatively satisfying as it was will give me good cause to give them a try.

This book is actually fairly good tale told reasonably well. I do not agree that it is a worthy literary attempt, but rather a journeyman endeavor - a good one at that.

Other have suggested that the story line is improbable. I didn't consider it so at all. While somewhat convoluted I found it credible nontheless.

The author's insights into his characters was illuminating and interesting, but he sometimes reached too far in attempting to cast all mankind in his own image.

Though not a great book I feel that it was a worthy undertaking that all in all made for an enjoyable read.

Bill Wyeth, the protagonist, was an extremely sympathetic character as was the other major character, Jay Rainey.

Rating:
Summary: A TAUT, TOTALLY ABSORBING READING
Review: Well remembered for his articulate readings of numerous audio books Henry Leyva gives a taut, totally absorbing vocal performance of Colin Harrison's latest thriller.

Bill Wyeth, a high powered real estate lawyer is upwardly mobile. He's already successful while still in his thirties, married, and the father of a son. While his wife wants more their New York apartment is upscale; their friends are important.

Then, he experiences every man's worst fear - he loses all by mere happenstance. It's a dreadful accident when he finds a drink for one of the young boys at his son's sleepover. Unbeknownst to Bill a mere drop of a substance to which the boy is allergic is in that glass. A severe reaction ensues, and the boy dies.

From the top of the heap he sinks to the bottom of the barrel. His wife takes their son and moves to another city. Set adrift in a world he does not know Bill takes to hanging out in a restaurant, a Manhattan steakhouse managed by the very attractive Alison Sparks.

Almost as intriguing as Alison is the restaurant's private bar called the Havana Room. Rumor has it that the goings on in that space are high stakes and dangerous.

Wanting to prove himself to Alison he agrees to a favor - he agrees to represent an unsavory character who needs to quickly close a real estate deal. Big mistake. Bill soon fears for his own life as he learns of murder and kidnaping.

Colin Harrison paints a frightening picture of the New York we'd rather not visit, and Henry Leyva describes it exceedingly well.

- Gail Cooke

Rating:
Summary: not all bad, just disappointing
Review: when I picked up this book and read the first few chapters I was enchanted, the 1st few pages were so well written, they were almost perfection.After Wyeth's downfall though, the book just fell apart. the Havana room "secret" was ridiculous as was the wine property "secret" which bordered on improbability.
in spite of all this the book did keep me coming back for more, though at one point I was pretty mad at the author for destroying what could have been one of the best books of the decade.the first couple of chapters are so good though that I reccomend reading up until he has his first lunch at the Havana room, and then putting it down and imagining the rest of the story yourself.