Lisa G has sent me yet another book, she claims in hopes that I will blog about it. I will not disappoint!
The Havana Room by Colin Harrison was surprisingly well-written for a crime novel, more so than necessary given the genre (of which I am, of course, an aficionado). For instance, there is a section in the middle of the book where, for no apparent reason other than to possibly show off or indulge a flight of Pynchon-esque fancy, Harrison sums up the history of New York City into one extremely long comma-delineated sentence. And it's really interesting and smart, if a little hard to read.
Beyond that, the plot was good. I didn't have everything figured out halfway through, which is always nice, and there were a lot of intersecting plot lines that all came together, plus some genuine heart*.
Now, on to what DIDN'T work, and that was the &#$%@ eponymous Havana Room, a secretive downstairs bar attached to the steakhouse in which our hero lurks. You would think that based on the fact that this room is the freakin' TITLE of the book, and teased with humorless heavy breathing on the back cover ("...a secret place at the back of the restaurant, the Havana Room, where a man might find both evil and redemption..."), that it might actually be somehow critical to the plot. As in, not just a location where some stuff happens to happen, but the MAIN place. The place that, were it not for its existence, the plot could not even exist.
Um, spoiler alert: it's NOT. You could get rid of the Havana Room altogether and not even know it was missing. I was thinking while I read the book: did his publisher make him add it on at the end to spice things up? And oh, the unbearable and cheesy way in which it's used to build incidental suspense (incidental, that is, in that it's not related at all to the plot and is instead a quite lightweight sub-plot). Our hero becomes aware of the Havana Room. At long last, he wrangles an invite to go down there and see what illegalities are happening. Just as the Show is about to start, he is called away on a pressing matter - and misses everything! And no-one will tell him what happened! When, o when, will his curiosity ever be satisfied? Nevermind the murders and shaky land deals and manipulation and lies that constitute the rest of his daily existence. The Havana Room...now THAT'S something to think about. And let me just add that this 'suspense' is drawn out until page 200.
Someday perhaps I'll meet Colin Harrison and ask him why this was added. Was it to increase the commercial appeal of the book through (falsely) suggesting some kind of dark sexual underworld, as I suspect? Or was he just fascinated with the story of what ultimately is found to go on in the Havana Room, and looking for a chance to show off that particular bit of arcana?
Beyond this carping, however, a good read if you like The Crime.
* The "heart" mentioned above refers to an extremely exalted view of parenthood, especially fatherhood, which leads the author to write near the end of the novel, "People who don't have children often take violent exception to the idea that their lives are in any way existentially different from the lives of those who do have children, and to this I only laugh darkly to myself and think, Well yes, you may think that, but you are already dead, my friend." Which as a someone without kids, is, well, a tad grating.
Recent Comments