Harris, E. Lynn 1957–
E. Lynn Harris 1957–
Author
E. Lynn Harris had a secret he kept from his coworkers for a long time. The first person he spoke to about his secret was well-known author Maya Angelou. In 1983 she was speaking at a corporate conference in the company where Harris worked. It was there that he confessed his secret to her. He wanted to become a writer. “She told me I should write something every day,” he said in People magazine, “even if it was just one word.” This dedication to his dream has made Harris an extremely popular author today.
E. Lynn Harris was born in Flint, Michigan in the late 1950s. His mother was a single parent who raised him and his three sisters on her salary from factory jobs. “My mother was a single parent who always worked two jobs,” Harris told the Chicago Tribune. “We have never been a sit-down-at-the-table-and-discuss-our lives-type. But there has always been a lot of love there.” Harris recalled watching white families on television and wondering why his family did not act the way they did. “I realize now that we, black families, respond to things differently,” he added in the Tribune.
When Harris was four years old his mother moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, where Harris spent the remaining time of his growing up years. His mother had a small four room house. The Houston Chronicle said that as a teenager Harris “used to lie about his modest, single-parent background and pretend to be the scion of a well-off family.” “I started working odd jobs at age 12 to help support the family,” said Harris in The Atlanta Constitution. Even though life wasn’t easy he managed to do right. “My mother is my greatest inspiration because she worked so hard to bring us up right. She leads by example.” According to The New York Times, Harris was 14 when he first met his father, who was killed a year later.
Harris attended high school several miles away from his home and commuted the distance daily. The school was a predominately white school. Harris said he attended the school because students received a better education there than the schools closer to his home. When he graduated, Harris went on to attend the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. It was there that he decided he was going to become a writer. He majored in journalism and received his degree in 1977. While at Arkansas Harris was the first black male cheerleader, the first black yearbook editor, and president of his fraternity. He told The Houston Chronicle that he was in that workaholic mode, being the most popular, but not having any friends.
To this day Harris remains an Arkansas Razorback fan. He seems more devoted than their other big fan Bill Clinton. “I get upset and depressed for a day when Arkansas loses. I don’t even read the sports pages. It’s just my passion,” he told USA Today. He went on to tell the story of how he rushed through a book signing and interviews one night a couple of years ago during the NCAA basketball tournament, “it was the one time that I prayed no one would show up,” he said.
“I was miserable because I was living a lie,” he told The New York Times. “Mr. Harris said he fretted over his looks and lied about his sexuality for years,” the paper
At a Glance …
Born 1957 in Flint, Michigan, son of Etta Harris an assembly worker and single parent. Single, no children. Education: University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, B.A. in Journalism, 1977; further classes in business at Southern Methodist University.
Careen Corporate Sales Staff, IBM, AT…T, and Hewlett-Packard, 1977–90; Author, 1990–; books: Invisible Life, self published, 1992; Anchor Books, 1994; Just As I Am, Doubleday, 1994; And This Too Shall Pass, Doubleday, 1996; if This World Were Mine, Doubleday, 1997;i Abide With Me, Doubleday, 1999; Not A Day Goes By, 2000; Any Way The Wind Blows, 2001.
Membership: E. Lynn Harris Better Days Foundation, founder,
Addresses: Doubleday Books, 1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036.
continued. “He drank too much. He was lonely.” Mr. Harris relates one story where he called his mother crying because he had broken off a relationship with a lover. He said in The Commercial Appeal, that his mother told him “You’re my baby and I love you no matter what.” “And I said, ‘I know mom, but sometimes you need somebody more than your mother to love you.’” She didn’t know at the time that Harris was gay. When asked about his sexuality Mr. Harris has given different answers. To some reporters he has said he is gay and has known this for many years. At other times he has said that he relates to one of the characters from his first two novels, Raymond Tyler, Jr., “I see myself as a gay man, but when I see an attractive woman,” he said in The Dallas Morning News, “or think about settling down and making a home for myself, I still feel that ambivalence. I think it’s an issue that troubles a lot of men.”
After college Harris was hired immediately by IBM. He spent approximately the next thirteen years selling mainframe computers for IBM as well as AT&T and Hewlett-Packard. He lived in Dallas, Houston, and New York City before moving to Atlanta. Harris has said he was earning $90,000 a year at his sales job before he left. The Houston Chronicle called him, “successful but not happy.” The article also added, “… he turned to writing as a form of therapy to help alleviate feelings of depression.” “Part of the depression was that being black and gay had caused me so much pain,” he said in The Houston Chronicle, “If someone understood the pain that living this life could cause, maybe they would see that nobody would go out willy-nilly and choose it, and they would show more empathy.” As with many gay men it took some time before Mr. Harris could feel comfortable with his sexuality.
After leaving his high powered sales job, Harris began writing. When he completed his first book he sent it to several publishers. Not a single publisher would agree to publish the manuscript. Some even went so far to say that black people didn’t want to read about the things he was writing. Even a national publisher of gay books rejected the manuscript. After some soul searching and getting over the pain of all the rejection letters, Harris decided he would publish his own book. According to Publishers Weekly he contacted AIDS agencies and they were able to provide the money he needed in exchange for a portion of the proceeds in return for helping him promote the book. He was also able to find a printer that would work with him to arrange payment for their work. “I got the book printed right before the Christmas of 1991, and that’s when the horror started,” he said to the magazine. “I had over 5, 000 copies in rented office space. At the first book party we sold only 42, and I felt sick.”
He began carrying around boxes of the book in the trunk of his car. He left copies at beauty salons, women’s groups, black-owned bookstores and even went door-to-door in an effort to sell the book. Bookstores began calling him when customers began requesting the book they had seen in beauty salons. It wasn’t long before Essence magazine named his book one of their ten best of the year. He worked hard enough that eventually he had sold 10,000 copies of the book that he published. For many first books, published by major publishers, this is considered to be a successful book. All Harris’ work finally netted him a contract with a publisher. Doubleday signed him to a writing deal, after reading an article about him in The Atlanta Constitution. They re-issued the first book Invisible Life in paperback, and published in hardcover his second book Just As I Am.
Harris became well-known. He is greeted by hundreds of fans when he arrives for book signings at stores around the country. His third book spent several weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. “Slowly I’m seeing more men, slowly I’m seeing more whites,” Harris said recently in The Houston Chronicle. “But the majority are Black women. They are very fervent in their support.” Being a former salesman, he knows that his fan base has grown because the amount of time his latest book has spent on the bestseller lists. On why his books are popular Harris told the Chicago Tribune, “The characters and situations are so real that people learn something about themselves and about other people.” He also felt that the books touch everyone in the black community, both gay and straight. “Most of the black community believe that certain people like upstanding or popular black people can’t be (gay or bisexual),” he told the Chicago paper. The Tribune also added that “the popularity of his novels have forced the African American community to examine this once hidden side of the black culture.”
Harris began working on his memoirs, tentatively titled, For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When Being Gay Was Too Tough, a word play on the title of Ntozake Shange’s play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow Is Enuf. He was also working on the sale of the screen rights of his books, so that they can be made into movies, as well as two other novels. In 2002 Harris received the Writers for Writers Award from Barnes & Noble for his E. Lynn Harris Better Days Literary Foundation, an organization that helps mentor up-and-coming writers.
By 1994 Harris could claim that he was the first African American male to be at the top of Blackboard, the African-American best-seller list. By 2000 his first six novels had sold over one million copies and he was the first African American male to equal the achievements of his female counterparts. Harris’ characters often show up from book to book, which helped to keep his readers hooked. Or, perhaps his readers are hooked because his plots, according to Clarissa Cruz, writer for Entertainment Weekly, could be described as “Soul Food meets Melrose Place.” Harris’s latest character, Yancey Harrington Braxton, a broad way diva, is jilted at the altar in Not a Day Goes By, and records an “autobiographical” song in Harris’s subsequent novel, Any Way the Wind Blows. Having first hand knowledge of marketing, Harris asked Booby Daye to write music and lyrics for “Yancey’s Song” and asked Yvette Carson, a back-up singer for Whitney Houston, to record the song. Harris’ publisher, Doubleday, produced 15, 000 promotional CD singles that feature the same cover art and title, Any Way the Wind Blows.
At book signings, Harris is surprised when people tell him how much they love him, give him hugs, and bring him food. He liked the fact that people tell him how much his stories have touched their lives. In an interview with Ebony magazine, Harris was asked where he finds his inspiration. Harris replied, “My faith in God and in myself, from people I consider role models—my mother and my aunt, someone like John H. Johnson and Linda Johnson Rice. He’s from Arkansas, and I always look to him as a hero. If a man from Arkansas could create Ebony, I could become a success, too.”
Selected writings
Invisible Life, 1992.
Just As I Am, 1994.
And This Too Shall Pass, 1996.
If This World Were Mine, 1997.
Abide With Me, 1998.
Not A Day Goes By, 2000.
Any Way The Wind Blows, 2001.
Sources
Periodicals
The Advocate, June 24, 1997, p. 110; August 29, 2000, p. 67.
The Atlanta Constitution, June 9, 1992, p. Dl.
Chicago Tribune, December 5, 1994, p. C1.
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis), April 4, 1996, p. 1C.
The Dallas Morning News, April 3, 1996, p. 1C.
Ebony, October 2000, p. 23.
Entertainment Weekly, September 2000, p. 38.
Essence, April 1996, p. 88.
The Houston Chronicle, April 14, 1996, p. 20.
The New York Times, March 17, 1996, p. A43.
People, April 15, 1995, p. 115.
Publishers Weekly, December 6, 1993, pp. 29, 32; April, 19, 2000, p. 44;June 26, 2000, p. 50; June 25, 2001, p. 49; July 30, 2001, p. 53.
USA Today, August 17, 1994, p. 7D.
On-line
Publishers Weekly, http://publishersweekly.reviewsnews.com, February 25, 2002.
—Stephen Stratton and Christine Miner Minderovic
Harris, E. Lynn 1957—
E. Lynn Harris 1957—
Author
Harris Discovers His Sexuality
E. Lynn Harris had a secret he kept from his co-workers for a long time. The first person he spoke to about his secret was well-known author Maya Angelou. In 1983 she was speaking at a corporate conference in the company where Harris worked. It was there he confessed his secret to her. He wanted to become a writer. “She told me I should write something every day,” he said in People magazine, “even if it was just one word.” This dedication to his dream has made Harris an extremely popular author today.
Popular, But No Friends
E. Lynn Harris was born in Flint, Michigan in the late 1950’s. His mother was a single parent who raised him and his three sisters on her salary from factory jobs. “My mother was a single parent who always worked two jobs,” Harris told the Chicago Tribune. “We havenever been a sit-down-at-the-table-and-discuss-our lives-type. But there has always been a lot of love there.” Harris recalls watching white families on television and wondering why his family did not act the way they did. “I realize now that we, black families, respond to things differently,” he added in the Tribune.
When Harris was four years old his mother moved to Little Rock, Arkansas, where Harris spent the remaining time of his growing up years. His mother had a small four room house. The Houston Chronicle said that as a teenager Harris “used to lie about his modest, single-parent background and pretend to be the scion of a well-off family.” “I started working odd jobs at age 12 to help support the family,” said Harris in The Atlanta Constitution. Even though life wasn’t easy he managed to do right. “My mother is my greatest inspiration because she worked so hard to bring us up right. She leads by example.” According to The New York Times, Harris was 14 when he first met his father, who was killed a year later.
Harris attended high school several miles away from his home and commuted the distance daily. The school was a predominately white school. Harris says he attended the school because students received a better education at that school than the schools closer to his home. When he graduated, E. Lynn Harris went on to attend the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. It was there that he decided he was going to become a writer. He majored
At a Glance…
Born 1957 in Flint, Michigan, son of Etta Harris an assembly worker and single parent. 3 younger sisters. Single, no children. Education: University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, B.A. in Journalism, 1977; further classes in business at Southern Methodist University.
Corporate Sales Staff, IBM, AT & T, and Hewlett-Packard, 1977-90; Author, 1990-present. Author: Invisible Life, self published, 1992; Anchor Books, 1994. Just As I Am, Doubleday, 1994; And This Too Shall Pass, Doubleday, 1996.
Addresses: Agent —Doubleday Books, 1540 Broadway, New York, New York 10036.
in journalism and received his degree in 1977. While at Arkansas Harris was the first black male cheerleader, the first black yearbook editor, and president of his fraternity. He told The Houston Chronicle that he was in that workaholic mode, being the most popular, but not having any friends.
To this day Harris remains an Arkansas Razorbackfan. He seems more devoted than their other big fan Bill Clinton. “I get upset and depressed for a day when Arkansas loses. I don’t even read the sports pages. It’s just my passion,” he told USA Today. He went on to tell the story of how he rushed through a book signing and interviews one night a couple of years ago during the NCAA basketball tournament, “it was the one time that I prayed no one would show up,” he said.
Harris Discovers His Sexuality
“I was miserable because I was living a lie,” he told The New York Times. “Mr. Harris said he fretted over his looks and lied about his sexuality for years,” the paper continued. “He drank too much. He was lonely.” Mr. Harris relates one story where he called his mother crying because he had broken off a relationship with a lover. He said in The Commercial Appeal (Memphis), that his mother told him “You’re my baby and I love you no matter what” “And I said, “I know mom, but sometimes you need somebody more than your mother to love you.” She didn’t know at the time that Harris was gay. When asked about his sexuality Mr. Harris has given different answers. To some reporters he has said he is gay and has known this for many years. At other times he has said that he relates to one of the characters from his first two novels, Raymond Tyler, Jr., “I see myself as a gay man, but when I see an attractive woman, “he said in The Dallas Morning News, “or think about settling down and making a home for myself, I still feel that ambivalence. I think it’s an issue that troubles a lot of men.”
After college Harris was hired immediately by IBM. He spent approximately the next thirteen years selling mainframe computers for IBM as well as AT&T and Hewlett-Packard. He lived in Dallas, Houston, and New York City before moving to Atlanta. Harris has said he was earning $90,000 a year at his sales job before he left. The Houston Chronicle called him, “successful but not happy. “They also added “... he turned to writing as a form of therapy to help alleviate feelings of depression.” “Part of the depression was that being black and gay had caused me so much pain,” he said in The Houston Chronicle, If someone understood the pain that living this life could cause, maybe they would see that nobody would go out willy-nilly and choose it, and they would show more empathy. “As with many gay men it took some time before Mr. Harris could feel comfortable with his sexuality.
After leaving his high powered sales job, Harris began writing. When he completed his first book he sent it to several publishers. Not a single publisher would agree to publish the manuscript. Some even went so far to say that black people didn’t want to read about the things he was writing. Even a national publisher of gay books rejected the manuscript. After some soul searching and getting over the pain of all the rejection letters, Harris decided he would publish his own book. According to Publishers Weekly he contacted AIDS agencies and they were able to provide the money he needed in exchange for a portion of the proceeds in return for helping him promote the book. He was also able to find a printer that would work with him to arrange payment for their work. “I got the book printed right before the Christmas of 1991, and that’s when the horror started, “he said to the magazine. “I had over 5,000 copies in rented office space. At the first book party we sold only 42, and I felt sick.”
He began carrying around boxes of the book in the trunk of his car. He left copies at beauty salons, women’s groups, black-owned bookstores and even went door-to-door in an effort to sell the book. Bookstores began calling him when customers began requesting the book they had seen in beauty salons. It wasn’t long before Essence magazine named his book one of their ten best of the year. He worked hard enough that eventually he had sold 10,000 copies of the book that he published. For many first books, published by major publishers, this is considered to be a successful book. All Harris’ work finally netted him a contract with a publisher. Doubleday signed him to a writing deal, after reading an article about him in The Atlanta Constitution. They reissued the first book Invisible Life in paperback, and published in hard-cover his second book Just As I Am.
Finally, Success Arrived
Harris became well-known. He is greeted by hundreds of fans when he arrives for book signings at stores around the country. His third book spent several weeks on The New York Times bestseller list. “Slowly I’m seeing more men, slowly I’m seeing more whites,” Harris said recently in The Houston Chronicle. “But the majority are Black women. They are very fervent in their support.” Being a former salesman, he knows that his fan base has grown because the amount of time his latest book has spent on the bestseller lists. On why his books are popular Harris told the Chicago Tribune, “The characters and situations are so real that people learn something about themselves and about other people.” He also feels that the books touch everyone in the black community, both gay and straight. “Most of the black community believe that certain people like upstanding or popular black people can’t be (gay or bisexual),” he told the Chicago paper. The Tribune also added that “the popularity of his novels have forced the African American community to examine this once hidden side of the black culture.”
Harris now splits his time between homes in New York City and Atlanta. He is working on his memoirs which are scheduled to be published next year. They are tentatively entitled, For Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When Being Gay Was Too Tough, a word play on the title of Ntozake Shange’s play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When The Rainbow Is En uf. He is also working on the sale of the screen rights of his books, so that they can be made into movies, as well as two other novels.
Harris is still single, though The New York Times says he “prays for a partner. Someone who loves basketball and ballet. Someone who’s willing to tell the truth. Someone who’s willing to accept love.” These thoughts are a long way from the young boy that dreamed of a middle class life. “I know now it’s okay to have dreams—just make sure they’re your own.”
Sources
The Atlanta Constitution, June 9, 1992, p. D1.
Chicago Tribune, December 5, 1994, p. C1.
The Commercial Appeal (Memphis), April 4, 1996. p. 1C.
The Dallas Morning News, April 3, 1996, p. 1C.
Emerge, July/August 1996, p 77.
Essence, April 1996, p. 88.
The Houston Chronicle, April 14, 1996, p. 20.
The New York Times, March 17, 1996, p. A43.
People, April 15, 1995, p. 115.
Publishers Weekly, December 6, 1993, pp. 29, 32.
USA Today, August 17, 1994, p. 7D.
—Stephen Stratton
Harris, E. Lynn 1957–
Harris, E. Lynn 1957–
PERSONAL: Born 1957, in Flint, MI; son of Etta (an assembly worker) Harris. Ethnicity: "African American." Education: University of Arkansas, Fay-etteville, B.A. (with honors), 1977; studied business at Southern Methodist University. Religion: Christian Hobbies and other interests: Arkansas Razorback fan.
ADDRESSES: Home—New York, NY, and Chicago, IL. Agent—c/o Author Mail, Doubleday, 1540 Broadway, New York, NY 10036.
CAREER: Corporate sales for IBM, AT&T, and Hewlett-Packard, 1977–90; author, 1990–.
AWARDS, HONORS: Novel of the Year prize, Blackboard African-American Bestsellers, Inc., 1996, for Just as I Am; National Association for the Advancement of Colored People Image Award nominee, 1997, and James Baldwin Award for Literary Excellence, both for If This World Were Mine; named SBC Magazine Brother of the Year in literature; Harlem Y. Mentor Award; BMAD (Gay Men of African Descent) Angel Award; Writers for Writers Award, Barnes & Noble, 2001; Blackboard Book Award for fiction, 2002, for Any Way the Wind Blows.
WRITINGS:
Invisible Life, Consortium Press (Atlanta, GA), 1991.
Just as I Am: A Novel, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1994.
And This Too Shall Pass, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1996.
If This World Were Mine, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1997.
Abide with Me, Doubleday (New York, NY), 1999.
Not a Day Goes By: A Novel, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2000.
(With others) Got to Be Real: Four Original Love Stories, New American Library (New York, NY), 2000.
Any Way the Wind Blows: A Novel, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2001.
A Love of My Own, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2002.
(Editor, with Marita Golden) Gumbo: A Celebration of African-American Writing, Harlem Moon (New York, NY), 2002.
What Becomes of the Brokenhearted: A Memoir, Doubleday (New York, NY), 2003.
Contributor to periodicals, including American Visions, Brotherman, Essence, and Go the Way Your Blood Beats.
WORK IN PROGRESS: A memoir tentatively titled For Colored Boys Who've Considered Suicide When Being Gay Was Too Tough. Also working on a young adult novel series titled "Diaries of a Light-skinned Colored Boy" and a screenplay for Warner Brothers, a remake of the 1976 movie Sparkle. In addition, three of Harris's books—Invisible Life, Just as I Am, and Not a Day Goes By—were considered for film adaptation.
SIDELIGHTS: E. Lynn Harris, a computer salesman-turned-novelist, used writing to help liberate him from a depression born of hiding his homosexuality. Successful but unhappy in his former technology job, Harris was lonely and became a heavy drinker. When he met noted author Maya Angelou at a business function in 1983, he confessed to the poet that he had a desire to write. She encouraged him to write every day, even if his output was only a single word. Eventually, Harris left his sales job and wrote a semi-autobiographical novel, Invisible Life. Although the book was initially rejected by several publishers, it eventually reached a large audience and Harris became an increasingly well-known name in African American fiction.
It took a great deal of determination to put Invisible Life into readers' hands. Harris decided to self-publish the novel, using his own savings and funds raised from AIDS organizations. But as he told a reviewer for Publishers Weekly, the hard work was yet to come: "I had over five thousand copies in rented office space. At the first book party we sold only forty-two, and I felt sick." The author filled the trunk of his car with books and began distributing them to black-owned bookstores in Atlanta; he also left copies in black beauty shops, asking that they be kept in the shops for patrons to read. Word of mouth finally created a demand for the book and stores began to order copies in greater numbers. Subsequently, Essence named Invisible Life one of its ten best books, and a story in the Atlanta Constitution led to a trade paperback publishing contract with Anchor Books.
Harris's first novel treats gay themes but attracted a wide audience, especially among black, female heterosexual readers. Invisible Life is the story of a black man, Raymond Tyler, who has a long-term relationship with a girl during high school and college. But in the senior year of his college career, Tyler becomes attracted to a man and enters a double life, dating women from whom he hides the fact of his bisexuality—or perhaps homosexuality. The novel details his experiences in gay bars, the impact of AIDS on his life, his relationship with a married man, and his own interest in having a family.
Harris continued Tyler's story in Just as I Am, in which Tyler's former girlfriend, Nicole, also serves as narrator. While Harris was credited for the book's depiction of gay life, several reviewers noted its lack of substance. A Publishers Weekly critic called it an "unappealing potboiler" and "more checklist than novel," while a reviewer for Kirkus Reviews dubbed the author's first two novels "saccharine treatments." David Ehrenstein, writing in the Los Angeles Times Book Review, commented that while the author deals with "potentially very serious material … Harris is barely up to the task of regurgitating the clichés of a previous generation of gay pulpsters." Commenting on Harris's readership, Ehrenstein noted that "the fascination many heterosexual women have for homosexual men has—finally—been revealed as a market ripe for the plucking."
Harris next began working on a nonfiction project, a memoir tentatively titled For Colored Boys Who've Considered Suicide When Being Gay Was Too Tough, a title reminiscent of Ntozake Shange's play For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide/When the Rainbow Is Enuf. But he first returned to publishing with the novel And This Too Shall Pass, a story about young black professionals, male and female, gay and straight. Each of Harris's protagonists face different crises, including alcoholism, sexual orientation, and physical abuse. The plot revolves around a young NFL quarterback for a fictional Chicago team who is falsely accused of sexual assault by Mia, a young, black sports-caster. Other characters in the novel include Tamela, an attorney for a large Chicago law firm, and a gay sports-writer named Sean who ultimately falls for the football player. Booklist reviewer Charles Harmon liked the novel's characters, dialogue, and plot, and concluded that the book had "something to impress nearly any reader." A reviewer in Publishers Weekly found the novel "entertaining" and noted that "despite some stilted dialogue, this novel should broaden the author's readership."
Continuing with a slightly older group of black characters, Harris created If This World Were Mine, which contributor Rhonda Johnson called "an engrossing, fast-paced buppie Big Chill" in an Entertainment Weekly review. The four central characters, who are friends approaching the age of forty, meet regularly to share their journals. The meetings ultimately serve as more than a writing exchange; they provide a support group for a variety of troubles. A Publishers Weekly reviewer considered it to be "another involving tale" but added, "it's likely that many readers will long for more structure and dramatic payoff." Ray Olson commented in Booklist that If This World Were Mine is "more in the vein of Terry McMillan than of Toni Morrison."
In 2000 Harris's book Not a Day Goes By reached the number-two spot on the New York Times bestseller list. A reviewer for Publishers Weekly pointed out that this was nothing new for Harris. "Following a string of bestselling novels featuring plots that mix romance, deception, betrayal and bisexuality, Harris … scores again." In 2001 Harris published Any Way the Wind Blows, which, Theola S. Labbe, a Publishers Weekly reviewer, noted "picks up where … Not a Day Goes By left off, following the adventures of a macho sports agent who breaks the hearts of women and men…. As in previous works, the characters are generally African American, upwardly mobile, gay or bisexual and in search of love."
Some reviewers have criticized Harris's writing, stating that his plots sometimes read like predictable soap opera storylines. Many also see Harris's stories, as Labbe put it, "as a bit too pat." Some reviewers have expressed concern over the author's lightweight approach to serious topics such as AIDS and bisexuality. Harris responded to such concerns in his interview with Labbe: "Sometimes I can see their point…. I do take note, I do listen to criticism and I think I handle criticism pretty well."
In the 2002 novel A Love of My Own, Harris brings back Raymond Tyler as the novel's protagonist. Tyler becomes the CEO of Bling Bling, a hip-hop magazine, and meets Zola Denise Norwood, who is the magazine's editor-in-chief. She is also having an affair with the periodical's wealthy publisher, David McClinton. The new job requires Tyler to relocate to New York, a much-needed move since he has just ended a long-term relationship. As in Harris's novels, there is a heavy emphasis on relationships and sex, but the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center of September 11 eventually prompt Tyler, Norwood, and others to reevaluate their lives. A Publishers Weekly contributor commented, "A more serious effort than Harris's previous works, this book is loaded with sensational goings-on and characters, both old and new, who will keep readers returning for more of the same." Denise Simone, writing in Black Issues Book Review, noted that "fans of Harris' work won't be disappointed."
After writing numerous novels, Harris turned to his own life for What Becomes of the Brokenhearted: A Memoir, published in 2003. In an interview with Elizabeth Millard of Publishers Weekly, Harris noted that he had originally set out to write a memoir when he ended up with his first novel. "Every time I gave a reading, people would ask me personal questions, and I saw that my readers were becoming much more interested in who I was. When I began to answer them and look back on my life, I realized there were some moments that made me who I am, and I wanted to share that." In the memoir, Harris delves into all the difficulties of his life, from his years of alcoholism and depression as he dealt with his homosexuality to finally attaining a successful lifestyle only to go broke and lose it all. He also discusses how he finally turned his life around and became a best-selling author. A Publishers Weekly contributor noted that readers "should appreciate the deep honesty with which he describes each stumble and fall." Adrian King, writing in Lambda Book Review, commented that she found Harris's fiction "more fulfilling" than his memoir, but also noted that What Becomes of the Brokenhearted "speaks directly to what Harris has repeatedly espoused in his previous eight novels—that love has many forms and we get from it what we put into it." Booklist contributor Whitney Scott predicted that fans of Harris's fiction will be "caught up in this engaging writer's engagingly told life story."
BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:
BOOKS
Contemporary Black Biography, Volume 12, Thomson Gale (Detroit, MI), 1996.
PERIODICALS
Advocate, March 8, 1994, p. 73; August 29, 2000, Austin Foxxe, review of Not a Day Goes By, p. 67.
American Visions, June, 1994, p. 30.
Atlanta Constitution, June 9, 1992, p. D1; January, 2001, Anthony Johnson, review of Not a Day Goes By, p. 23.
Black Issues Book Review, September, 2000, Kenneth E. Reeves, review of Not a Day Goes By, p. 21; May, 2001, Nikitta A. Foston, review of Got to Be Real: Four Original Love Stories, p. 19; July, 2001, Glenn Townes, review of Any Way the Wind Blows, p. 30; September-October, 2002, Denise Simone, review of A Love of My Own, p. 25; January-February, 2003, Zakia Carter, review of Gumbo: An Anthology of African-American Writing, p. 30; September-October, 2003, Curtis Stephen, review of What Becomes of the Brokenhearted, p. 52.
Booklist, February 15, 1994, Whitney Scott, review of Just as I Am, p. 1060; February 15, 1996, Charles Harmon, review of And This Too Shall Pass, p. 990; June 1, 1997, Ray Olson, review of If This World Were Mine, p. 1619; June 1, 2000, Whitney Scott, review of Not a Day Goes By, p. 1797; July, 2001, Vanessa Bush, review of Any Way the Wind Blows, p. 1950; December 15, 2002, Vanessa Bush, review of Gumbo, p. 726; July, 2003, Whitney Scott, review of What Becomes of the Brokenhearted, p. 1843.
Dallas Morning News, April 3, 1996, p. 1C.
Ebony, October, 2000, "Q&A with Best-selling Author E. Lynn Harris"; August, 2003, review of What Becomes of the Brokenhearted, p. 30.
Emerge, July/August, 1996, p. 77.
Entertainment Weekly, April 15, 1994, Michael E. Ross, review of Invisible Life, p. 55; August 22, 1997, Rhonda Johnson, review of If This World Were Mine, p. 129.
Essence, July, 1992, p. 42; April, 1996, p. 88; August, 2001, review of Any Way the Wind Blows, p. 64.
Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, January, 2001, Timothy Burton, review of The Young and the Reckless, p. 42.
Houston Chronicle, April 14, 1996, p. 20.
Kirkus Reviews, December 15, 1993, p. 1542.
Lambda Book Report, May, 1992, p. 48; March-April, 1994, Canaan Parker, review of Just As I Am, p. 20; May, 1994, p. 38; May, 1995, p. 39; December 2003, Adrian King, review of What Becomes of the Brokenhearted, p. 32.
Library Journal, February 1, 1994, p. 111; February 1, 1996, p. 98; June 15, 1996, p. 105; September 15, 1999, Catherine Swenson, review of Abide with Me, p. 128; March 1, 2000, review of Not a Day Goes By, p. S1; November 1, 2000, Ann Burns and Emily Joy Jones, review of Got to Be Real: Four Original Love Stories, p. 101; January, 2003, Ann Burns, review of Gumbo, p. 110.
Los Angeles Times Book Review, July 10, 1994, David Ehrenstein, review of Just as I Am, pp. 4, 10.
Newsweek, April 29, 1996, p. 79.
New York Times, March 17, 1996, p. A43.
People, April 15, 1995, p. 115; May 15, 1995, p. 115.
Progressive, January, 2001, Kate Clinton, review of Abide with Me, p. 36.
Publishers Weekly, December 6, 1993, pp. 29, 32; January 24, 1994, review of Just As I Am, p. 41; January 29, 1996, review of And This Too Shall Pass, p. 84; March 4, 1996, p. 31; July 1, 1996, p. 56; July 28, 1997, review of If This World Were Mine, p. 55; April 19, 1999, Alissa Quart, "E. Lynn Harris: Tales of the Good Life," p. 44; June 26, 2000, review of Not a Day Goes By, p. 50; December 4, review of Got to Be Real, p. 53; June 25, review of Any Way the Wind Blows, p. 49; July 30, 2001, Theola S. Labbe, "E. Lynn Harris, Black, Male, out, and On Top," p. 53; July 29, review of A Love of My Own, p. 56; November 25, 2002, review of Gumbo, p. 42; June 16, 2003, review of What Becomes of the Brokenhearted, p. 61; June 16, 2003, Elizabeth Millard, "Writing to Find Some Kind of Peace of Mind" (interview), p. 62.
Tribune (Chicago, IL), December 5, 1994, p. C1.
USA Today, August 17, 1994, p. 7D; June 25, 2001, review of Any Way the Wind Blows, p. 49.