What Becomes of the Brokenhearted: A Memoir (Hardcover)

by E. Lynn Harris (Author) "Beverly Smith, a chubby ten-year-old, paused..." (more)
Key Phrases: New York, Little Rock, Aunt Gee (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly
With his bestselling novels (And This Too Shall Pass; Abide with Me; etc.) Harris has carved out a niche as a writer of jaunty books with melodramatic plots, usually centering on gay or bisexual black men with riches and rippling biceps. In stark contrast, Harris's memoir is free of the fancy trappings his characters enjoy, starting with the author's suicide attempt in 1990, before he decided to become a writer. From this beginning, Harris goes back to his birth in 1955 and proceeds chronologically, detailing abuse by his stepfather, the awakenings of sexual desire for other men and the discovery of his biological father. Some passages ache for more detail, as when Harris offhandedly mentions working in a brothel at age 13. More often, though, the pace is fitting, giving the book a sense of forward motion as strong as the thoughts of young Harris, dreaming of escape from his native Arkansas. Although he suffers traumas and frustrations as a child, Harris's love life is most heartbreaking. His struggle to find love as an African-American Southern man led to a series of disappointing relationships that taxed Harris's tenderhearted, affectionate nature. He tells this part of his story with such simplicity and straightforwardness, it seems distilled, stripped down to its barest elements until only the clearest emotions remain. Readers of Harris's novels should be surprised at how far from charmed his life was, compared to the troubled but ultimately blissful lives of his fictional characters. Yet they should appreciate the deep honesty with which he describes each stumble and fall.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist
"I set out to write a story for me . . . that would capture the pain and joy of being black and gay. I wanted it to be a love story," Harris says in explanation of his first novel, Invisible Life (1991), which he wrote after years of alcoholism, joblessness, and depression, and after losing friends and a successful lifestyle that once included driving a Mercedes (later repossessed). Raised just a step above welfare in Arkansas and repeatedly and brutally beaten by his stepfather, Ben, Harris for decades carried deep-seated feelings of inferiority and anxiety about being born out of wedlock, about being poor, and about being "different," which he later learned consisted of being gay. His young manhood was a series of drunken flings punctuated by occasional, ill-fated romances that left him ever lonelier and more tearful in his quest for love. When the deaths of friends spurred him to write, the creative act helped him mature into the confident, best-selling author he is now. His fans will embrace his fast-paced memoir eagerly, and then be caught up in this engaging writer's engagingly told life story. Whitney Scott
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Doubleday; 1 edition (July 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0385502648
• ISBN-13: 978-0385502641
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #454,271 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #29 in	Books > Literature & Fiction > United States > African American > Harris, E. Lynn
  #89 in	Books > Gay & Lesbian > Biographies & Memoirs > Gay

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Great Triumph!, July 8, 2003

By	Karl Miller "kemspeaks" (Phoenixville, PA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

E. Lynn Harris is a great fiction writer, which sometimes makes the transition to fact difficult. But his life story, which represents triumph of the spirit and determination to overcome obstacles is a true winner.
The book opens in the early 1990's, prior to Harris's success as an author, and uses an attempted suicide as a starting point for this biography. It's a chilling opening, but it sets the tone for many of the harsh realities presented by Harris.
An early childhood filled with abuse, teenage years spent questioning sexuality, and lifelong battles with depression certainly aren't the stuff of happy memories, yet Harris raises his many issues with clarity and purpose.
The two sections of Harris's life that make for the most gripping reading are his college experiences and his battles with depression. The college years are both funny and heartbreaking, and Harris is at his best when presenting this type of material. His entry and rise up the leadership rung of his college fraternity make for the best reading, if only because they are cast against a backdrop of his emerging sexuality (and the challenges that raises as a Greek), and his role as the first male cheerleader at the University of Alabama (which gives Harris an opportunity to tell some great stories). His battles with depression are significant as he comes to grasp with the fact that his depression is chemical based, and not the result of (as he believed) his issues with his sexuality. This portion of the book really hits the reader hard, and his overall success in treatment truly warms the heart.
Anyone familiar with Harris's successes as an author know how the story ends - he has become incredibly successful, and happy with who he is, which is the ultimate triumph of this book. Fans of his fiction will enjoy getting to know the real E. Lynn Harris - and fans of autobiographies should also enjoy this gritty yet warm story.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars The brokenhearted can survive, dream, and move on, July 13, 2003

By	The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers (RAWSISTAZ.com and BlackBookReviews.net) - See all my reviews

In an emotional, heart-pulling introduction and first chapter, we are given an in-depth look into the real world of E. Lynn Harris, not the glamorized life many of his fans will assume that he's led. WHAT BECOMES OF THE BROKENHEARTED is the highly acclaimed and much anticipated release of the summer. It's a tell-all on the life of an award-winning author who started out self-publishing and has continuously reached new heights writing about relationships between gay and bi-sexual men. We are now able to find out more about the young child and man prior to what we hear about today and have read in the bios that accompany his books.

Opening with his suicide attempt in 1990, Harris immediately shows us that his life is very different from the wealthy characters he writes about. He tells of how even at a time in which he was ready to give up living, he was able to come back from "rock-bottom" through his faith in God as well as the support of friends and family. Without delay, he grabs the reader's attention and then takes you back in time as he shares about his childhood and growing up in Little Rock, Arkansas.

The first experience he shares is Easter 1964. He is dressed up in his new jacket and is excited about giving his Easter speech before the church congregation. His happiness is quickly shattered when his father Ben rips apart his new jacket, verbally demeans him and calls him a sissy. He doesn't quite understand that while his two sisters can proudly twirl around and display their Easter outfits, it's not befitting for a young boy to do the same. This just one of the scenes he shares about life at the hands of his physically abusive father. He spends much of his childhood in fear of Ben, wondering how a father can be so cruel to his own son; while at the same time sensing that he's different. This sets the stage for a low self-esteem and the need to begin pretending to be something he isn't.

WHAT BECOMES OF THE BROKENHEARTED takes us from the time Harris is a child through his young adult life. He shares his fears, his desire to be in a loving relationship, and his realization that he does prefer men to women; despite his attempts otherwise. Through his candid and honest recount of those times in his life, we learn of his fight with depression, the abusive relationships he's had the misfortune to suffer through and the make-believe world he built around himself to hide not only his poor upbringing, but also his sexual preference.

His job after college working with IBM and the success he attained in a position that not many other black men held showed his tenacity and perseverance to reach the dreams of success that he put in place as a child back in Arkansas. In spite of this, Harris was often left with a broken heart falling into depression, alcoholism, and the continued closet-lifestyle of a gay man unable to admit it.

It saddened me reading that one of my favorite authors had suffered so much heartache, but it brought me joy to read of the lessons he's passing on to others. In his memoir, we're able to see him in a more human light; no longer comparing him to his characters. The lessons he shares should do well in showing others the importance of appreciating yourself, being strong in your faith, valuing friendships, being secure in who you are as a person-even if it is different from the role in which society tries to place you, and knowing that your life is yours to live without pretense or being ashamed of your past. I'll sum it up by saying...the brokenhearted can survive, dream, and move on to claim not only success, but happiness.

Reviewed by Tee C. Royal
of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars GUT-WRENCHING....HEARTBREAKING........, August 13, 2003

By	Dana Y. Bowles "DYB" (West Chester, PA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Fans of the "E" Man (as I call him) are allowed into the personal life of this wonderful author and man....difficult to read at times, this is a very emotional story of the difficulties facing men, specifically Black men, who are gay in a world that offers up enough obstacles to those who are straight.

I have long been a fan of E. Lynn Harris, and I will admit to some disappointment when I found that his newest work was an autobiography; ironically, he even makes reference in the book to the fact that many of his fans may be disappointed. You won't be!

Follow "Lynn" from his childhood days in Arkansas, at the hands of his abusive stepfather....see the love showered on him from his family....walk with him through his college days, and be proud of his academic achievements....and cry throughout, as he struggles to find romantic love....from any sex....and struggles with the fact that he is, truly, gay.

I cried many times throughout this book, but I find true solace and irony in the fact that the same man who struggled with alcoholism and depression in his quest to find love is loved by so many the world over today.

God Bless you, "Lynn......."