Reviews

- David Foster Wallace wrote: " Mercilessly observed and heartbreakingly plotted, Manhattan Nocturne is totally enjoyable on all levels - the best piece of 'postmodern noir' since James Ellroy's 'The Big Nowhere'."
- excellent writer

ericwelch's review against another edition

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4.0

Porter Wren, a tabloid columnist, goes to a party to collect information for a column and is approached by Caroline Crowley, a striking woman in a peach colored dress. She invites him to her apartment where she shows him confidential police reports related to the death of her husband, Simon Crowley, whose body was discovered in a building being demolished. No one can figure out how the body got there as it was sealed off before and after demolition began. Crowley was a brilliant movie director who would often just disappear at night to videotape. One night he never returned and now Caroline, who had been married to him for only a year, ostensibly wants Porter to look into the matter. Videotapes become both the problem and the solution as Porter tries to unentangle himself from intertwining puzzles.

She seduces him - probably the wrong word, since his desire for her cancels whatever reservations and fear of possible repercussions he might have. "My encounter with her had in no way diminished my love for my wife and children -- no that is plain enough; the mystery is that my love for them did not preclude the possibility that I might love Caroline Crowley, too, in that sudden, sickening, unstable way that one craves and should rightly fear."

I was struck by the number of reviewers on Amazon who gave this book one star. The common antipathy seemed to be an overabundance of sex. I went to check when the first "sex" scene was and it wasn't until a third of the way into the book. And sex is more than relevant to the characters. There is one set piece in particular that struck me. Wren in lying in bed with Caroline and she wants to discuss the difference in sex between her and his wife. There follows a fascinating discussion. And it relates to death, of all things. With Caroline, he "is not responsible for our future. I am not beholden to you or you to me. It's all here now. It's new snow on the windowsill. Very lovely now, then gone." If you don't like sex, I recommend [b:The Wonderful Wizard of Oz|236093|The Wonderful Wizard of Oz (Oz, Book 1)|L. Frank Baum|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1172982142s/236093.jpg|1993810]. I mean, really.

I have read only one other book by Harrison, [b:Risk: A Novel|6810296|Risk A Novel|Colin Harrison|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1255918314s/6810296.jpg|7017850], but it had a similar theme, the ordinary guy, just trying to get through life, who becomes enmeshed in something big and seemingly beyond his control. The ordinary guy proves to be resourceful in defense of his mundaneness. If you are looking for the superman hero who takes on the bad guys with guns blazing, leaping over several parked cars, while fleeing hoards of menacing apparitions, you probably won't like this book. If, on the other hand, you enjoy a well-crafted suspenseful novel, I would recommend either Manhattan Nocturne or Risk.

borisfeldman's review

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4.0

New York Noir.
Surprising plot.
Elegant prose.
I'm sad (Sad!) that I had not discovered Colin Harrison earlier. I'm excited to be working my way through his oeuvre. (Not his hors d'oeuvre.)

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