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Abide With Me
E. Lynn Harris
Reviewed by Steven G. Fullwood
Abide With Me is the third and final installment in the Invisible Life trilogy
and it's a doozy. E. Lynn Harris brings back Nicole, Raymond and Basil. If that
weren’t enough, there's Yancey, understudy to Nicole whose very presence spices up
the novel considerably. It’s a volatile mix.
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The novel opens with Raymond and Trent
reclining in a large Seattle loft-styled bedroom when Raymond receives news that he’s
being considered for a judgeship. There’s a confirmation process that ends up turning
up the dirt on a few people and Raymond finds himself wondering if the whole thing is
worth it. Nicole and Jared have returned to New York from Atlanta, so Nicole can continue
a Broadway career. Basil, now working at ESPN in Atlanta, is in therapy (thank God!) and
reveals some startling information about his life that humanizes him.
There are a few minor characters that help to move the novel along, which is filled to the
brim with betrayal, sabotage and surprising events that hint at the possibilities of
numerous sequels.
Raymond’s story is the most developed primarily due to his role as protagonist in two
previous novels. It seems that Harris is only interested in telling Raymond’s story,
and everyone else, (expect for maybe Basil), is fodder for dramatic tension. In Just As I Am, Raymond’s plum line to his therapist is,
“I’m just afraid of dying like Kyle. Alone, without someone special loving
me.” Harris seems determined to keep both Raymond and hope alive by giving him
everything: a lover, a successful career and loving parents. But Raymond discovers that
having it all doesn’t necessarily guarantee happiness.
Perhaps Basil utters one of the best lines in this book; “Love is for punks, suckers
and females,” which is a thought both he and I are forced to re-examine as the novel
goes along. Harris really only writes about love and how can that be bad, right? Curiously
enough, Harris’ literary godfather, James Baldwin, once said that an author only has
one story and spends the rest of his or her life trying to tell that story. Harris’s
stories are about love, and however clumsily he goes about it, his courage to tell his
story is worth the price of admission. M
April 2001 |
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