Bodies Electric

Harrison's novel is an engrossing and suspenseful story of colliding ambitions and needs in America, with an incisive view of how corporations dehumanize the people who support them. His rich descriptions of life and society are as astute as any critical essay, yet make for irresistible reading. He also is a master of the "gray area": there are no good guys or bad guys in this book -- just people trying to survive and find personal fulfillment in their own ways. This novel has changed both the way I write and the way I view other people trying to make sense of life.

I could hardly put this book down. I really enjoyed the theme and the development of the characters. Really a pleasure to have come across it.

Fantastic! That's what I could only say to you guys without any chronicle backpains. I suffered a badback again last week and had to lie down in bed for 4 days. "Bodies Electric" had lightened my painful suffering for two days and enlightened me in the meantime. When I finished it, I could not help but shaking my head awkwardly on my pillows with amazement and appreciation. This review is also my "Thank You!" note to Mr. Harrison for this wonderful and profound painkiller other than Motrin 800 mg and Flexril. The only thing that I did not quite enjoyed is that when I finished reading, the ending seems to be a bit rushed and obscure. Mr. Harrison so far has created two profound, memorable yet lonely characters: Jack Whiteman and Porter Wren. Both are fatally driven to be a "tragic hero" and a living example of "The heart is a lonely hunter." Both have made you, the reader, to look at the faceless lonely crowd out in the street, on the sidewalk, in the concrete jungles, with new way of looking angle, finally realized and visualized that behind every expressionless face and worldly success, some of them might still with passion, love, warmth, sympathy, fantasy, desire, weakness, helplessness, tenderness, hopes and dreams. Harrion's artwork might not be easily appreciated by those under 30 who are still unconciously or subconciously reading books with their own different moral standards, with their bias social values or pre-judgement to approach a book, trying to categorize a book with the superflous commercial brands: "Thriller, Genre," words like "Suspenseful, whodunit...." These pathetic marketing stuff in fact, all got nothing to do with Harrison's works. Because he only told us two thing: "No matter what and why, no matter how and when, with wife and children or not, we human beings still got a darker side and lonely inner self. The spur-of-the-moment or your behavior, no matter how reasonable or logical at the moment, or vise versa, sometimes might just ruin everything you have worked so hard to have achieved or reached." Reading Mr. Harrison's books with any social value or moral standard is a doomed wrong start albeit to appreciate his greatness.

Just couldn't imagine how Harrison would have created so many interesting characters and stories. You should not read his books with your own preferences or likings. All you have to do is "read on and read along with the writer's creative world." Do not treat his books as those commercialized, categorized stupid words, such as "genre,thriller, mystery, whodunit..." These goddamned hateful disgusting words would only narrow your reading mind and taste and would only offer you a tunnel-vision like, prefixed requirement and standard to force you trying very hard but in vain to appreciate Harrison's wholeheartedly given writing enthusiasm. Harrison's only problem to a reader like me with bad eyesight is his longer than usual sentences and paragraphs but nonetheless would stop me to appreciate his abundant feelings forged into those profound sentences.

When I first opened this book and began reading it, I knew I was in good hands. The writing is beautiful. I finished it in two sittings, and immediately regretted reading it so fast, but I couldn't help it. It is stunningly captivating and putting it down is very close to impossible. I've read thousands of novels in my time, and I can't at the moment think of one written better than this one. Mr. Harrison's mastery of the English language is unequalled. The characters are fascinating and the storytelling flawless. And the suspense will have you reading at the edge of your seat. Also check out 'Break and Enter' and 'Manhattan Nocturne', both also works of art. But 'Bodies Electric' will always be my favorite. My guess is; if you read this one, you will be desperately hunting for everything else he's written, and you won't be disappointed when you find them.