Harlan's Race: A Novel (Hardcover)

~ (Author)
Key Phrases: second sniper, two vets, beach glass, New York, Fire Island, John Sive (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In 1974, The Front Runner was published, a novel of love and loss that became a best-loved classic about gay life. Now, twenty years later, comes the sequel - a story of passion, and victory pulled from defeat.

After his young athlete lover is assassinated on the Olympic track in Montreal, coach Harlan Brown is forced to enter the race of his life. To survive the hate and violence which threaten his chosen family - Betsy, valiant lesbian mother, Vince, angry activist seeking revenge, Chino, Vietnam vet with a wounded heart, and the secret child of Billy Sive, The Front Runner.

In time, a second chance at love comes. Vince Matti, 25, a runner who was Billy's best friend, has harbored an unrequited passion for his ex-Marine coach. Handsome, volatile, and passionate, Vince challenges Harlan's stoic and lonely heart in unimagined ways. Harlan must race with the shadow of the past - that memory of the brief idyll with Billy - and reach a present where love is enduring and real.

Meanwhile, Harlan's ordeal with bias and bloodshed is not over. Snipers often work in pairs, and the Montreal shooter evidently had a cohort who escaped arrest. This mysterious stalker moves implacably into Harlan's world. And yet another stalker is moving into gay life - a disease that has no name. As events move to the climax, Harlan runs the most desperate race of his life - risking everything to win the victory torn from his hands at Montreal.

About the Author

Patricia Nell Warren is the landmark author of some of the most popular gay novels of all time. Each of her books has been a milestone in America’s understanding and acceptance of GBLT themes. Her most beloved work, The Front Runner, has sold an estimated ten million copies in ten languages. The first modern story about gay love to become an international bestseller, Warren’s celebrated saga of an ex-Marine track coach and his Olympics-bound athlete has engaged and inspired both gay and mainstream readers for over a quarter of a century. Warren’s novels have also sold heavily to libraries and are used in numerous college courses. Wildcat Press is Ms. Warren’s exclusive imprint, offering some of the best in enduring gay literature. Established in 1993, the dynamic independent publisher has released both past and present bestsellers, winning it critical acclaim. Current titles include, The Front Runner, Billy’s Boy, Harlan’s Race, The Fancy Dancer, The Beauty Queen, One Is The Sun, and The Wild Man. Dedicated to furthering free speech, Wildcat Press has been one of the plaintiffs for the ACLU in several recent landmark lawsuits, two of which went to the United States Supreme Court. Wildcat maintains that we are all one community regardless of race, creed, or sexual orientation, and that tolerance brings understanding and acceptance.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 324 pages
• Publisher: Wildcat Press; Hardcover edition (May 1, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0964109905
• ISBN-13: 978-0964109902
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #325,568 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Nice Follow Up, June 23, 2001

By	Brett Benner (Los Angeles, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Harlan's Race: A Novel (Paperback)

"Harlan's Race" doesn't feel as much a sequel, as a continuation. The book picks up right where the "Front Runner" left off, with Billy Sive being murdered at the Olympic Games, and it's aftermath.I was glad I had re-read "...Runner" before I started this because it helped keep the characters fresh in my mind. Nell Warren succeeds in keeping Harlan's voice a barometer of the changing times as the seventies gives way to the somewhat more tolerant 80s.The backbone of the book is really a mystery novel with an apparent accomplice in Billy's murder still loose and aiming at Harlan. I thought for the most part this was successful although the identity of the mystery person began to be telegraphed towards the end which took some suspense out of it.My only other slight disappointment with the book was the leaping of years towards the end to bring the story closer to the present. Knowing this book may be part of a total of four books, I almost wish she'd taken more time and detailed the years that are lost by being summarized on a few pages. Still I was glad to be back in Harlan's head for a while. It felt like talking with an old friend.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally - the sequel !!!!, July 10, 2001

By	Get What We Give (Georgia) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)

How do you write a sequel to a gay American classic? Ask Patricia Nell Warren. She's done it! I can't say that I was always happy with the choices she made but I have to agree that they were the right ones.

No, this isn't the Front Runner. But then no book could be. The 70's offered the gay male a new sensibility about his sexuality. It allowed him to realize that he was not some horrible outcast in modern society. The Front Runner was a romance that gay men had been waiting for since the beginning of time. Where E. M. Forster's Maurice was a romance, it unrealistically allowed the characters to have an unqualified happy ending. Warren did not. Warren gave her characters flesh, blood, and oxygen that had been so lacking in so many previous gay themed novels. I cried my eyes out when I first read The Front Runner. Because I had waited almost twenty years for the sequel, I tore through it with a vengeance. We can't hope for the love and joy that we experienced reading The Front Runner. That wonderful book's ending couldn't allow Harlan's Race to be nearly as idealistic or uplifting. However, it does provide us with a carefully crafted, believable memorial to gay fiction's (possibly most loved) character: Billy Sive. In twenty years I've moved from Billy's age to Harlan's and I found that his skin fit me well. Read this book, if you've read the first one. If not, start there and work your way forward. This is great storytelling. Warren's books should be required reading for Pat Robertson and his contemporaries. Maybe then, they would understand "forbidden love".

I have to give the book four stars instead of five simply because it's missing my favorite character.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stronger Kick than the original, February 26, 2003

By	G. Toscano (Pasig, Philippines) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Harlan's Race: A Novel (Paperback)

Reading Harlan's Race for the first time is like a refreshing slap to the face. I love The Frontrunner and Billy but in a way, throughout the years and the way it has been heralded as THE gay classic of all time, has made it seem less realistic and almost fable-like and surreal (despite the shocking conclusion).

This book relates the events that happened after Billy's murder and maybe, I can relate to it more, because it deals with death and rebirth, agony and triumph, hatred and love in a way that is more tangible, even grittier and harsher than but nonetheless as beautiful as the Frontrunner.