Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780307344809
ISBN: 0307344800
Label: Random House Mondadori
Manufacturer: Random House Mondadori
Number Of Items: 1
Publication Date: 2005-12-06
Publisher: Random House Mondadori
Release Date: 2005-12-06
Studio: Random House Mondadori

Customer Rating:
Summary: "The contours of imagination are changed by money."
Comment:

One day Bill Wyeth is an upscale Manhattan lawyer with the requisite beautiful wife, eight-year-old son, oversized apartment and a bright financial future. When Wyeth falls asleep at night he may be a bit bored with the predictability of his world, but contentedly falls into dreams knowing he is safe. Wife Judith is already planning for a vacation home, Timothy hosting a birthday-slumber party for eight friends, a few of them sons of influential men his father wants to impress. On the night of the party, when Bill assumes he is performing a good deed, a tragic accident occurs and a boy lies dead. Suddenly the world drops away as the grieving father takes revenge the only way he can, destroying Wyeth's carefully constructed career. Judith panics, files for divorce and moves with their son from the east coast to the west. Wyeth learns how quickly a fall from grace can alter the direction of his life from an upward trajectory to a slippery slope that seems to have no bottom, left with little cash and a few nice suits in a third floor walkup.

Harrison's talent shines in this dense novel, a happy man's descent into the darker corners of the city that wealth and privilege avoid, where crime is rampant and the struggle to survive is ferocious. Wandering the chaotic streets of his new neighborhood, Wyeth discovers a popular steakhouse that has been a staple in the area for generations. He makes himself a regular, ensconced at table 17, even beginning a long flirtation with the attractive manager, Allison Sparks. Allison is a bit dangerous, but this appeals to Bill, who has little left to lose. He doesn't realize he has farther to fall, but of course, Bill is a naïf in this world, still nursing predictable hopes with marginal success, measuring all by what he knows; he is fascinated by a closed, invitation only room at the steakhouse, the Havana Room, deeply curious about what happens there and the fact that only Allison can issue invitations. When Allison asks a legal favor from Bill for her current flame, he reluctantly agrees; it concerns a multi-million dollar transaction that will take place in the Havana Room.

Allison's friend, Jay Rainey, appears an intelligent, straight-forward client, but Wyeth advises Rainey under duress and a time constraint that makes him uncomfortable as the attorney of record. And Wyeth has reason for concern- soon enough he is embroiled in an increasingly suspect business deal that has troubling ramifications. Every favor he does for Rainey pulls Bill deeper into a morass from which he is unable to extricate himself, pursued and kidnapped by thugs, pressured for information by the new owner of the property and searching for his suddenly unavailable client, a man with a tragic past and hopeless future. Harrison delves into the murkiest corners of the human heart, the small cruelties families inflict on one another and the greed of the powerful in a complicated tale that ends one violent night in the Havana Room, the mendacity of others exposed: "Like insect colonies and creeping plants, these intrigues need a bit of moisture and darkness to thrive. " Luan Gaines/ 2008.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: A complete miss.
Comment: I read this book after reading Afterburn, which was stellar. Harrison constructs atypical, unpredictable plot movements with a very literate style. Good character development, nice prose, and unexpected twists and plot development. Havana Room is a ridiculous, implausible, poorly executed story. Worst of all, Harrison relies on the very sloppy, lazy literary technique of keeping the reader in the dark about essential elements of the plot until it is revealed all at once by a single character (read: the author) explaining it all in one fell swoop with a big long monologue. I have written better material than this myself and I am in no way a writer in Harrison's league. I don't know if he had to produce this piece of drivel to pay his taxes or fulfill a book contract but I say with confidence that he is a fine writer as evidenced by Afterburn and the outstanding review that I just read of his newest novel, released in April of 2008. So.....read Afterburn and I will check out the new one but this.....is a waste of time.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Intriguing
Comment: The characters interwining stories along with the secrets of the Havana Room makes this a compelling read. I throughly enjoyed it.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Wildly entertaining.
Comment: "The Havana Room" features what I like to call an anonymous man -- successful, but not famously so; married to a wife who is pretty but not quite beautiful; rich but not a millionaire -- whose anonymity is shattered because of a tragic accident that leads to the death of his friend's son.

The death of this young boy causes his family's life to spiral downward, and he loses his job, his wife, his son, and his comfortable little existence. He escapes into a depressed funk.

Randomly, he enters a steakhouse one day. It is here where our story starts to spin.

Though he no longer practices law, the man, Bill Wyeth, is roped into helping with a real-estate deal. After the deal is made, Bill finds himself drawn to the man he helped, Jay Rainey, and ends up aiding him in a crime. The more Bill finds out about the deal, the more suspect it looks, and the more sinister Jay appears.

Colin Harrison is an absolute master at teasing his audience, sprinkling a little trail for them to follow, building suspense and anxiety to figure out the truth of the situation.

His prose is like bitter urban poetry. He completely exposes post-9/11 New York with sharp, accurate observations. Before Harrison gets to his story, he sits back and revels in his own prose ability, giving the city he lives in a light smack across the face.

Really the only flaw of this book is that, once Harrison points the way the story is actually going, it's obvious where it will end. It's hard not to be three or four steps ahead of our narrator, Bill. And the grand finale, which is played for awe and horror, shouldn't be a surprise to anyone.

Honestly, I wish the two revelations -- about Jay and his farm -- had not quite been so obvious. But it's hard to complain because this book is so addictively good leading up to it. You'll find yourself not wanting to put this book down, impatient to know what happens next.

Unlike others, I liked what happened in the Havana Room. It's not a cliche. It's absolutely nothing that you would expect -- an intriguing and creative stop-off in the book that makes for later fun.

While I admit I wish this book was as shrewd in the end as it was in the beginning, it doesn't detract from what was a really well-written and smart book. It took me quite a while to finally get around to reading Colin Harrison. But now, having read "The Havana Room," I won't be waiting long to read him again.

A terrifically entertaining and literary mystery.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Decent Literary Thriller
Comment: I liked THE HAVANA ROOM overall, but I must admit it's not for everybody. If you're looking for a realistic plot or likable characters, this novel will probably let you down. I didn't find this book particularly suspenseful, and I must admit I found some of the plot developments completely unbelievable.

However, the prose of this novel is remarkably well crafted. Colin Harrison is without question a gifted writer. The narrator of THE HAVANA ROOM, a 40-year old lawyer who has hit bottom, ruminates constantly about aging, the meaning of love, and other important life issues. These ruminations are very interesting to read. I suspect many middle aged men will identify with the themes presented in this novel.

I don't recommend this book if you're looking for a fast-paced thriller. But if you're looking for a literary/thriller hybrid, this is one of the better ones out there.

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