The Harris Family
A Novel
-
- $18.99
-
- $18.99
Publisher Description
The unforgettable crew of characters from RM Johnson's bestselling debut novel, The Harris Men, returns in a riveting story of love, loss, and second chances.
Julius Harris walked out on his family twenty-five years ago—and not a moment goes by when he doesn't regret it. Five years ago, after learning he had cancer, Julius tried to make peace with his three sons. It didn't take. Now, the disease has gone into remission. Overjoyed, Julius is grateful for this miracle, and the time it affords him to make up for his past mistakes.
It won't be easy. In Chicago, life isn't exactly simple for his three grown sons. The oldest, Austin, a successful attorney, struggles to be a good father to his children despite his ex-wife's attempts to turn them against him. Marcus, the middle son, wrestles with a fear of commitment that drives away the woman he loves. And young Caleb, just released from prison, fights to rebuild his life and win back his wife and child. The three Harris brothers have a hard enough time being there for each other—let alone a father they haven't seen in years. Nor are they sure they even want him in their lives.
Filled with intrigue, romance, and shocking twists, The Harris Family is a deliciously gripping novel of contemporary black relationships and, ultimately, a moving testament to the power of family, love, and forgiveness.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Johnson's sequel to The Harris Men picks up five years after the previous book ended, reintroducing readers to guilt-plagued patriarch Julius Harris and his three estranged sons: Austin, Marcus and Caleb. It tries to explore issues of forgiveness, redemption and familial solidarity within a humanistic framework, but is quickly sunk by graceless prose, hilariously awkward dialogue "My nipples are so hard I could cut diamonds," one breathless lover murmurs and a sensibility so middlebrow it would make Barry Manilow wince. Worse yet, Johnson's cast of middle-class African-American protagonists comprises only vapid, generic and underdeveloped soap opera stereotypes. In The Harris Man, Julius discovered he had cancer, and tried to reconcile with the adult sons he abandoned years ago; now, he learns that the cancer has gone into remission. Since Julius was able to win over only Caleb in the previous book, he spends most of this one working on Marcus and Austin. Along the way, the narrative shifts between Julius and each of his progeny, all of whom have grown up with some pretty serious character defects, as a result of not having a father around during their formative years. Marcus is self-centered and juvenile, reluctant to commit to his girlfriend, Reecie. Austin is similarly shallow, an arrogant lawyer who's willing to play custody games with his kids just to get back at his ex-wife. Caleb, an ex-con, is the best of the lot, but his quest to rescue former girlfriend Sonya and son Jahlil from evil drug-dealer Curtis is pure pulp melodrama. It occasionally manages to be trashily readable, but Johnson's second effortis mostly flat, predictable and trite.
