E. Lynn Harris, I Say a Little Prayer (Doubleday, 2006)I wasn't quite understanding all the flap surrounding this book until very recently, when an African-American friend of mine who lives in California expressed outrage at the fact that Proposition 8 (the anti-gay-marriage proposition) was passed largely because, according to polls, seventy percent of the state's black voters turned out in support of it. Suddenly things got a lot clearer where I Say a Little Prayer is concerned, and I understand a lot more of the reason Harris felt compelled to write this novel. Like many others, I have to say I'm glad he did. This is quite a good little book, even if it does gets tangled up in its own message now and again.The story focuses on Chauncey Greer, a bisexual black man who's decided that women are more trouble than they're worth, and so has decided to just date men. Problem is, he's got a bad relationship skeleton in the closet, and so these days his life, while successful on the outside, is littered with a string of unsatisfying relationships. Everything goes to hell when that old flame, Sweet D, arrives in town in order to recruit Chauncey to sing at a tent revival. Which is nothing too terrible—Chauncey and D were originally members of the same boy band—until Chauncey realizes that the minister holding the revival whips his members into a frenzy with his strong anti-gay agenda, and that D seems to be part and parcel of the anti-gay package. Clearly, there's a lot more going on under the hood than Chauncey had originally realized. In order to try and fight back against this hatred, Chauncey, in turn, tries to whip up his own congregation, but finds resistance there as well. What's a gay man—and a religious one, to boot—to do?While Harris is pretty obviously on the outside of all this looking in, he refuses to give in to stereotypes most of the time, and draws his characters with sensitivity, be they gay, bi, or straight, and his plot is compelling enough that he could well just sit back and let the novel write itself, given the strong characterization. Unfortunately, he wants to dabble a time or two in speechifying, but that is little reason not to enjoy the rest of this novel. Homophobes will obviously have a problem with it, but recommended for everyone who actually has a shred of a brain. *** ½
Chauncey Greer is the owner of The Cute Boy Card Company, a thriving company in Atlanta. As a teenager, he was a member of a popular boy band, but left in disgrace when word got out that he and his bandmate D had become much more than good friends. A free spirit now on the brink of forty, Chauncey has always hooked up with both men and women. With the age of the "down low" making women more cautious, however, Chauncey has been focusing on the guys. After one too many bad dates, Chauncey finds himself in church, where the minister's message inspires him to follow his dream of a musical career once again. Although he's lost touch with D, as he starts writing songs his thoughts inevitably turn to his former lover. Chauncey's smashing performance at the church earns him a standing ovation and an invitation to participate in an upcoming revival. But Chauncey soon discovers that an ambitious fundamentalist preacher plans to use the revival to speak out against gays and gay marriage. Feeling angry and betrayed, Chauncey and other gay members of the church decide to take a stand against the church's homophobia by staging a "Day of Absence" when all of the gay members and their friends and family stay home. Everything is going as planned . . . until D appears on the scene and Chauncey has to face some hard choices about his future.
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This is a re-read. I think i first read this maybe 3 years ago. The audiobook is still on my iPod so I took a second go-round with it and found myself liking it less! I am removing it from my Favorites.Let's be honest, the late E. Lynn Harris was a great storyteller but a pretty terrible author. You are certainly not expanding on your vocabulary after reading any of his works. I think he would have been perfect to 'write' reality shows. I Say a Little Prayer is no different.Regarding the author, the characters fit every stereotype about Blacks, Gays, Baptists and Southerners that you can think up. Not to mention the Gays always seem to outsmart the Heterosexuals. Why is that? There are plenty of pretty dumb Gays who make poor judgements about people just as is with anyone else. This novel is also yet another stretched out short story. Harris makes sure to place in familiar background characters from other novels for the fans, which is fine. But there are back-stories that are told here that do not move the novel along at all. Sylar's teen drag queen trilogy could have been told in one sitting, for example. I did enjoy the witty banter of Sylar but did not appreciate his animosity to females.The main character, I realized in Round 2's reading, is a very material and label conscious type of man. It was never just a scarf or pants--we had to know the designer, the retailer and the price of such items. Why is this important? There is some actual growth in this person, thankfully. Starting out so self-absorbed and sex-crazed was getting to be uncomfortable.I would be concerned if someone read this novel and said to themselves "I see now, so that is how Black Gay Men feel and think..." Granted that is an ignorant person to assume something so silly but unfortunately I'm positive this book has made such an impression on those folks.Again this is a fun story with great characters but with poor writing. Enjoy.
—Michael
This is the second E. Lynn Harris novel that I read. It is quite entertaining with slight a touch of eroticism and some obscenity, much less than what I'd be exposed to if I were to watch a movie with Black American characters. I'd consider this a gay mystery novel. The "gay" is just because most of the characters are gay; they are no pornographic depictions anywhere. It would be safe to have teens read it in high school. E. Lynn Harris is one good novelist who writes about gay and straight characters.
—Hoong
This was a fun read. It isn't a book written for the prose, as just about every other reviewer here notes, it's written for the story (and even that's a bit thin at times). But, like most of the other reviewers here note, there's an important aspect to the book: innocuous stories of successful black gay men. That, in and of itself, is reason enough for the book.I hated the villain, and not because they were so evil, but because they were just a caricature. And that's all I'll say about the writing.
—Lamar Latrell
