false 181465 8 Set in New York in the closing months of 1999, E. Lynn Harris's tightly plotted <I>Not a Day Goes By</I> bears all the outward markers of a romance by Danielle Steel or Jackie Collins--wealth, glamour, sex, and intrigue--except that the two main characters are more like the wily villains of a <I>Dynasty</I> remake. John "Basil" Henderson, a former football player who has started a successful sports agency with a friend, is a gorgeous, arrogant, bitter, woman-hating, homophobic, African American bisexual who is used to people staring at him. "Especially when I was naked," Basil confides, "My ass was perfect and my jimmie was both long and thick." Basil has fallen in love with an equally alluring figure, Yancey Braxton, a bronze-skinned Broadway singer whose beauty and dedication are matched by ferocious self-absorption and cunning. (Instead of attending her 10-year high school reunion, Yancey sent signed photos of herself and press packets.) Basil feels that his love has rescued him from the shallow life of a player, and he allows himself to believe that she is a good person, and that when they marry, she'll settle down a little and provide him with children. Yancey cares for Basil, too, but her career comes first. After that, sex and money. Babies aren't even on the list.<p> Harris's most sympathetic characters are Yancey's roommate, Windsor, a plump schoolteacher who spends her spare evenings holding abandoned babies at Hale House, and Zurich Robinson, a gay Christian ex-athlete who briefly considers joining Basil's agency, eliciting a string of ugly clichés from Basil's partner. Meanwhile, Basil, that pillar of integrity, listens in silence. The deal is scotched when Zurich announces that he has been interviewed for an article on gay men in professional athletics. When Basil asks him why he is coming out, Zurich tells him about another young quarterback who tried to run from his sexuality by getting married. The day of the wedding, he shot himself. "As Zurich told the story," Basil recounts, <blockquote> I could picture the young man and for a brief moment felt the pain he was struggling with. I had been there. But it had never gotten to the point where I wanted to kill myself. If I could have talked to Milo I would have told him, "Roll with it young brother.... There is a way to have your cake <I>and</I> ice cream, too." </blockquote> Suffice it to say that after a series of delicious plot twists and acts of increasing wickedness, it becomes clear that Basil and Yancey are too damaged to save each other. Although the characters in his sixth novel are somewhat two dimensional and his prose a little flat, E. Lynn Harris can manipulate a story line with the skill of an Eagle Scout earning his badge in knotmaking. Don't start this page-turner if you don't have six or seven free hours in which to read it straight through. <I>--Regina Marler</I> 1427383 2000 Not a Day Goes By: A Novel total:382|5:147|4:126|3:88|2:15|1:6| 382 1539 483 10 3 0 false false Wed Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 2001 Wed Nov 28 14:27:58 -0800 2007 Wed Nov 28 14:28:45 -0800 2007
I would have never thought after reading some of E. Lynn Harris's preceding books where Basil makes an appearance, that I would actually like this character. I've always kinda despised Basil. But in this book, I couldn't help but like him. Sure he's in deep ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Feb 28 17:58:23 -0800 2009 Sat Feb 28 17:58:36 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 1997 Wed Aug 19 10:32:11 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 19 10:33:14 -0700 2009
]]> 0 0 false false Fri Mar 06 09:23:24 -0800 2009 Fri Mar 06 09:23:27 -0800 2009 ]]> 3 0 false false Tue Apr 08 07:40:48 -0700 2008 Sat Apr 12 16:26:24 -0700 2008 Harris's books are good in a beach-read kind of way, although I do di...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Sep 23 16:33:33 -0700 2007 Sun Jan 20 13:25:41 -0800 2008 ]]> 2 0 false false Sat Jul 26 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 26 14:41:15 -0700 2008 Sat Jul 26 14:42:15 -0700 2008
I would like to try another of Harris' books though, as he kept me reading despite my dislike of all the characters. ]]> 3 0 false false Sat Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Nov 10 17:57:35 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 10 17:59:12 -0800 2008 Once 4 0 false false Fri Aug 29 15:16:30 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 29 15:25:43 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Thu Nov 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Wed Jan 23 13:19:32 -0800 2008 Wed Jan 23 13:19:32 -0800 2008 3 0 false false Tue Jul 29 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Nov 23 11:33:49 -0800 2009 Mon Nov 23 11:48:58 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Sun Nov 22 13:55:13 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 22 13:55:13 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Nov 22 06:49:02 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 22 06:49:02 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Sat Nov 21 17:51:32 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 21 17:51:32 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Thu Nov 19 09:59:40 -0800 2009 Thu Nov 19 09:59:40 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Tue Nov 17 10:11:31 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 17 10:11:31 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Sun Nov 15 13:26:03 -0800 2009 Sun Nov 15 13:26:05 -0800 2009 5 0 false false Sat Nov 14 22:46:49 -0800 2009 Sat Nov 14 22:46:52 -0800 2009 0 0 false false Fri Nov 13 23:05:10 -0800 2009 Fri Nov 13 23:05:10 -0800 2009 3 0 false false Tue Nov 10 10:14:33 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 10 10:14:33 -0800 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=181465