The Harris Men

by R.M. Johnson

Book Overview

RM Johnson's extraordinary novel is a stirring family portrait that resonates with emotion and wit, as a father faces death--and the three sons he abandoned so many years before.

"Mr. Harris, I'm sorry, but you have cancer." Although devastated to learn he has just one year to live, fifty-five-year-old Julius Harris has always known that the day would come when he would pay for walking out on his wife and three children twenty years...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0743400593
• ISBN13: 9780743400596
• Release Date: April 2000
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 336 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.2" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

GREAT NOVEL

THIS BOOK, ALONG WITH "WALKING THROUGH MIRRORS" WRITTEN BY BRIAN KEITH JACKSON, ARE PROBABLY THE BEST BOOKS I HAVE READ IN A VERY LONG TIME. FOR A DEBUT NOVEL, I THOUGHT THE BOOK WAS INCREDIBLY WELL WRITTEN. I APPRECIATED THE AUTHOR TAKING THE TIME TO DEVELOP HIS CHARACTERS. SPECIFICALLY, I FOUND THAT THE AUTHOR TOUCHED ON THE ISSUES EACH BROTHER FACED AS IT RELATED TO EACH RESPECTIVE BROTHERS BIRTH ORDER. AUSTIN HAD A DIFFERENT VIEW OF HIS FATHER THAN DID MARCUS AND CALEB BECAUSE HE WAS THE OLDEST. LIKEWISE, MARCUS WAS PROBABLY THE MOST DEVASTATED BY THE DISSERTION OF HIS FATHER BECAUSE HE WAS THE MIDDLE CHILD AND HAD TO FACE HIS MOTHERS DEATH, FATHERS ABSENCE, AND RAISING HIS YOUNGER BROTHER. THE ABSENCE OF THE FATHER HAD MUCH DIFFERENT EFFECT ON CALEB BECAUSE HE NEVER REALLY HAD A STRONG AND LASTING RELATIONSHIP WITH EITHER OF HIS PARENTS BECAUSE HE WAS THE LAST BORN. ALSO OF INTEREST WAS THE ROLE REVERSAL WHICH TOOK PLACE TOWARDS THE END OF THE NOVEL BETWEEN AUSTIN AND MARCUS. ALTHOUGH THROUGHOUT THE BOOK, MARCUS WAS THE ONE TO TRY AND KEEP THE BROTHERS TOGETHER,MUCH TO THE DISMAY OF AUSTIN, IT WAS ULTIMATELY AUSTIN WHO TRIED TO MAKE PEACE BETWEEN MARCUS AND JULIAN. HOWEVER, MARCUS' REQUEST OF HIS FATHER AT THE END RESULTED IN KEEPING THE BROTHERS TOGETHER WHICH I THOUGHT WAS INTERESTING. ALL IN ALL, I THOUGHT THE AUTHOR DID A GOOD JOB WITH A DIFFICULT SUBJECT MATTER AND THIS SHOULD BE REQUIRED READING FOR ALL BLACK MEN WHO ARE CONTEMPLATING HAVING CHILDREN. THIS BOOK POINTS OUT THE INCREDIBLE RESPONSIBILITY INVOLVED IN RAISING CHILDREN AND HAVING A FATHER FIGURE AND UNFORTUNATELY, THE PAIN, CONFUSION, DESTRUCTION OF LIFE AND LONG LASTING EMOTIONAL EFFECTS WHICH RESULT WHEN FATHERS ARE ABSENT. I HAVE ORDERED AND LOOK FORWARD TO READING "FATHER:FOUND", THE AUTHORS SECOND NOVEL.

Why did the book have to end?

This has to be on my top 5 list of the best books I ever read! Since this is the author's first book, I can't wait to read his other books. It's about 3 grown, black brothers who live different lives. They are all dealing with the disappointment of their mother passing and their father leaving them when they were boys. What I found amazing about this book is it didn't once mention infidelity among the brothers. They had female relationship problems but they never cheated. I liked the way the brothers handled their father reappearing after so many years. The author is awesome! You will get your money worth! The book should be made into a movie.

Execellent! Well written!

The VA Book Lunceheon Group has 12 members and all of them thought this book was great. The characters were well defined. The author kept the readers' interests in the book until the end. Many of our members felt that this book was based on a true story. Also many of our readers had a hard time finding this book in the libraries and book stores in the Washington, DC area. Our group wants to know whether the author is planning on doing a sequel to this book and we also look forward in reading books by this author.

READ IT AND WEEP!

What a way to begin a vacation! I read this book in two days, and just came in from our porch crying both on the outside and in. This is not just a book for black people to read, but for ALL people, especially ALL MEN! I just hope the next one, FATHER FOUND, is a continuation of this marvelous story. I felt deeply for both father and children, as well as wives, in this book. Although I agree the women could have been a bit more developed, it was enough for me to sympathize with them while caring so much for all the men in the story. A RARE find from the male perspective about a difficult subject. I grew up in a middle-class white family where the dad was physically there but emotionally absent, not much better than an absentee dad, and maybe even worse because no matter how hard I tried on a daily basis I never got to know him at all. My parents eventually divorced, and my dad died filled with regrets while I was in college. Such missed opportunities...there but not, and then gone!I know there are a lot of guys out there of the boomer generation who can relate. This book, beautifully written and fast moving, will reach the depths of the male soul and stay forever...have your wife read it too, its that important! Can't wait for the next. Great debut by an important writer in the making!

A novel that is long overdue!

Being a male of African decent, I felt there was a change needed in the type of novels that were being published and making their way to the shelves of book stores. Crowded were the shelves with books with titles like "Sista This", and "Sista That". It was refreshing to finally find a book written by a black man, about black men. A number of my female friends have read this book and many have enjoyed and a few have not. What I have to say to some women is, stop being so spoiled! Most of the recent commercial fiction titles published for African Americans are about women. This book is entitled The Harris Men! So people who open the pages should expect a story about men, not about men catering to women, or finding themselves because of the aid of a woman, or men making themselves whole to the credit of a woman, or whatever else women desire. This novel should be seen for what it is. If you want necks rolling, fingers popping, beauty shop talk, and the term "sistergirl" dropping out of every characters mouth each time they part their lips to speak, then go in the book store blindfolded, toss a dart in the Afro American book section, and purchase the book that dart lands on, because they're quite easy to find. Bottom line, this is a fine novel, one that should be appreciated for what it is and the purpose that it serves. That purpose being, to give readers an insight into the black males psyche. Unbiased insight, not filtered through the mind of anyone but that writer. That has been accomplished here, and I would personally like to than RM Johnson for his gift. And I, like so many of my friends eagerly await his next novel.