Rate this book

The Last Block In Harlem (2000)

by Christopher Herz(Favorite Author)

3.08 of 5 Votes: 4

languge

English

genre

review 1: Started off well, with an interesting premise of what happens when someone cleans up the neighbourhood to a point where developers start taking an interest in gentrification and push up prices so much that the residents can't afford to live there any more. However, it's rather slow paced and feels a bit more long winded than the page count suggests.Aside from this the authors portrayal of the lead characters relationship with his wife just doesn't ring true somehow and the ending, which I assume is there just for shock value, is macabre and worse, misplaced.
review 2: In a nutshell, an unemployed copywriter and his wife move into Harlem, and the man becomes obsessed in making Harlem over in his own image, unraveling himself in the process.Herz's writing is vivi... mored and thoughtful, with a strong sense of place, but I almost didn't get through it because his main character is the male equivalent of the "whiny bitch" protagonist who seems to have many insufferable clones in various novels I've read this year. Like his female counterparts, the narrator is a completely selfish, shallow person trying to experience meaning, inflicting his ideas of meaningfulness upon the world around him. Like most of these types of characters, he doesn't have to make a living, so he is free to float around searching for himself. Most of these whiny bitch characters seem to have at least one person totally in love and devoted to them, and Herz's main character is no exception. He has an exotic, brilliant and patient wife, Namuna, whose fate in being paired with him is surely worse than death.Harlem, NY is the setting,and Herz does have the gift of making us see Harlem or at least his version of Harlem. I didn't quite trust Herz's Harlem because there were so many people spouting off profound thoughts about life and their circumstances. Not that I don't think people in Harlem can be profound -- but rather, it isn't my experience, generally, that people have conversations like this at the drop of a hat. It seemed that around every corner of Harlem there is a sage in the form of a kid or crossing guard who spouts profound wisdom which the narrator is too dense to absorb, although he writes it all down, having writerly leanings.It could be that Herz intends for the story to have a surreal feel to it, because it becomes increasingly surreal toward the end, and there are moments throughout the book that seem ghostly. One recurring spouter of wisdom is a kid who seems to exist only in connection to a bridge on the Hudson River. I'm fairly sure Herz has read Dean Koontz, since the ending of his book has an eerie parallel in one of Koontz's Odd Thomas novels. One thing that is solid throughout the book: the observation that focused change is something that should be thought out carefully. The kid by the bridge observes near the end,"Why does everyone want to change a world that already works? I think some folks are just bored or scared of their own lives so they go about changing the world around them instead of themselves."I gave the book a 3-star because of reasons stated above, but it's a worthy read, one of those books that are good for discussion groups because it will evoke an interesting variety of reactions in readers. less

Download links for: The Last Block In Harlem

Advertising