Harlan's Race (Hardcover)

What astounds me --having read THE FRONT RUNNER, HARLAN'S RACE and BILLY'S BOY, the three to date in the series-- is the fact that Patricia Nell Warren is able to capture the essence and nuance of three very different decades, each with their own subtle --and not-so-subtle-- shadings on the emotional, political and socioeconomic fronts. A difficult task to capture in one decade. Yet Nell Warren does so over a span of three diverse decades in this tome.

Even more fascinating is the fact she deeply and richly inhabits the psyche of the gay male who has survived the loss of a love... and then has to watch several generations be taken away by a scourge equally or more heinous than the assassin's bullet that took Billy from Harlan.

As a man who has lived through this --I have been HIV + for over 17 years and lost a love and thousands of dear, loving and beloved people-- I speak from experience when I say Nell Warren has, with HARLAN'S RACE, pinpointed an accuracy that pierces deeply into that mindset and takes us on the long, hollow pursuit of life, liberty and happiness that always seems a stride away. Harlan races towards something he can't grasp, and his attempts to reach out for and fill a void no one can fathom the depths of until living it is deeply moving. Our author, through the voice of our protaganist, takes us into these landscapes honestly, and at times, a bit brutally. But always eloquently.

HARLAN'S RACE also has a fair amount of suspense, with some harrowing stalking in some dark, psychologically twisted terrain. If you loved Billy in THE FRONT RUNNER, you HAVE to read HARLAN'S RACE to have some questions answered, including by a few very "not-right" individuals that are portrayed in a manner consistent with the psychos some of our right-wing organizations churns out with their agendas of hate and intolerance. Scary, but very real... these people DO exist!

As well, in HARLAN'S RACE we get to find out more about some of our favorites from THE FRONT RUNNER. The Prescott's --including the matriarch of this extended family, the ever lovely and deeply loving Marian-- return, and we watch how our heroine handles some of the major changes life hands to all of us at some point. Betsy Heden returns as does Vince Matti, that smouldering sexual seething rebel who goes through a life change or two as well. And someone we only briefly met before, Chino, one of the bodyguards, begins slowly unfolding before us in HARLAN'S RACE, though always a dark secret remains. An enigma that I would love to see more of, Chino understands Harlan's loss all too well.

HARLAN'S RACE is different than THE FRONT RUNNER. Just as you and I are different in the 1990's from what we were in the 1980's and the 1970's. While sometimes our changes may seem awkward and we feel lost in our life changes, these are all very real and tangible characteristics all of us live through.

Patricia Nell Warren boldly explores these life changes with her characters in HARLAN'S RACE, seeming to live with them and grow --or stagnate at times-- as all real humans do. For this, my hat is off... not many authors are willing to go these multi-saga and multi-generational distances with their literary creations. She does so, and the results are haunting, harrowing and heroic in HARLAN'S RACE.

A race worth running and reading, I highly recommend HARLAN'S RACE, a front runner in its own right.