Harlan’s Race is a pleasant gay themed novel. It is the sequel to The Front Runner, written in 1973, and continues the story of that watershed novel called the most famous gay love story. This book, Harlan’s Race, has been characterized as “a fast read.” Indeed it is a book that’s easy to pour through in a couple of nights. While is not a book filled with meaningful insights and heavy philosophy, it is a nice diversion from the “important” gay books we have recently reviewed.
After the success of The Front Runner, a novel about the son of the character in the original was envisioned. Because of the years involved the author would have had to write future fiction, Ms. Warren elected instead to write this bridge novel covering the time from the end of The Front Runner to the life of the main character’s son.
The result is a trilogy, The Front Runner, Harlan’s Race, and Billy’s Boy. Center books of trilogies and quartets frequently suffer the same deficiency as the second acts of plays: They fall apart, or at best are a poor pale reflection of the original work. Fortunately it is not the case here.
Harlan’s Race is well plotted and seems able to stand on its own. It tells the story of Harlan Brown after he lost his partner (spouse?) at the end of The Front Runner. Much time is spent depicting with some plausibility the social unrest of the ’80s and early ’90s. It attempts to deal with gay activism and the changing face of homophobia. It does this adequately. It does better at depicting the gradual emergence of the AIDS virus into the characters’ lives. The vivid descriptions of unexplained pneumonia, of skin cancers, of a myriad of opportunistic infections were chillingly presented.
Often, though, the motivation of the characters is obscure. This would not be significant if it applied to only one character… but all the interactions seemed to me to be arbitrary and capricious. Why one character becomes violently revolutionary is unclear. Why Harlan puts up with infantile behavior is fuzzy. Why Billy’s son is essentially disconnected from Harlan is an enigma.
We are led to believe that love and passions of various kinds are the motivators. There is very little, if any, love being displayed in these pages. There is, however, plenty of manipulative behavior, undirected anger, self-indulgence, and egocentric posturing.
Having badly dumped on these shortcomings I now have to admit that the book is a fun read. It holds the readers attention. Do I recommend the book? Surprisingly I do. Just don’t expect too much of the characters. Don’t look either for expressions of love because they aren’t there.