Retro Reading: Invisible Life by E. Lynn Harris
Life on the DL
A few years ago for my birthday, my friend author Angela Patrick Wynn (Everything She Wants) gave me the book Invisible Life. At the time I hadn't given it much thought and for the duration sat on my bookshelf.
While this is my "summer of reading" I picked it up and it's one of those books that you really can't put down. I looked at it as kind of a learning experience as to how bisexual black men live their lives.
Starting off with Raymond Winston Tyler, Jr. receiving a letter, you're instantly drawn into the story. Of course, you want to know who sent him the letter and throughout the story you're still not 100 per cent sure. After he receives the letter, the story begins with him and his girlfriend at college.
Back at school we're introduced to Kelvin (who's a couple of years younger) and how his affair with Raymond began. At the end of the year, Raymond leaves Alabama and heads to New York to continue with law school, eventually making the Big Apple his home.
Years go by and during the holiday season, Raymond runs into Kelvin and his fiancée, Candance. She invites him out for New Year's Eve telling him that she knows just the girl for him. He's not really interested since he just met Quinn (a married man) and he thinks he'll go home for Christmas.
While in Alabama he gets some much needed rest and when he returns to New York, he ends up going out with Kelvin and Candance. They introduce him to Nicole and as the months roll on, he begins to have a relationship with her, while also seeing Quinn.
Harris has woven a story so complex that you wish Raymond would make a decision of who he wants to be with, but also at the same time you want Quinn to make a decision and Nicole to make a decision regarding her acting career. So many decisions and so little time.
What I wasn't prepared for was the ending.
I thought the book would be wrapped up in a neat little package, but I found out there are more books making this a series. Now to find the others and then pick up where I left off.
Thanks APW!