friendofhayley's review against another edition
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
beblackbeloved's review against another edition
3.0
The main character is this one, I just really couldn't jive with. It was very heavy on the religion side, which served its purpose for the plot, but Chauncey's judgmental nature contradicted a good chunk of his religious beliefs. He was very self-centered, misogynistic, colorist, always slut-shaming (but still sleeping with men in relationships), and making disparaging remarks about other gay men (including those he called his friends). E. Lynn Harris creates characters that are like some of the most irritating people I know, which is why I can't say that his stories are ever...unrealistic. But this one, while it had the drama that I love, was full of a lot of shit that just does not age well.
bettyboop25's review against another edition
5.0
This book was good. I enjoyed it and could not put it down.
crankylibrarian's review against another edition
3.0
I've always been curious abut E. Lynn Harris: at the height of his popularity in the mid 90s he was the Tyler Perry of books: a black author dissed by the critics who was phenomenally popular among black readers. Most of his novels feature young upwardly mobile African Americans chasing love and success in cities like Atlanta, Chicago or New York; many, but not all of his protagonists are gay, as was Harris himself.
I Say a Little Prayer deals with a timely topic: gay rights and the role of the church. Chauncey, an openly gay businessman and aspiring singer, is happily committed to Abundant Life Church and Pastor Kenneth. He faces a dilemma when he discovers that his pastor has arranged for him to sing at a revival hosted by the gay-bashing Bishop Upchurch...Chauncey's closeted ex boyfriend. Yikes!
I can't give Harris points for his prose style; but he creates vivid characters and he knows how to build suspense. Will Chauncey sing at the revival or stand up for his beliefs? Will he expose Bishop Upchurch? Although I felt Harris copped out on Chauncey at the end, I was delighted to see some nuance in the portrayal of black gay men, and of black religion. In white popular culture, the black church is often used for comic relief, with the underlying assumption that such churches are peopled by overly emotional yet intellectually deficient "holy rollers". The church folks in Harris's novel are all intelligent, mostly well educated and have complicated viws about faith, sexuality and gender roles. This perhaps explains Harris enduring popularity; he was able to present the complexity of modern black life without falling back on stereotypes.
I Say a Little Prayer deals with a timely topic: gay rights and the role of the church. Chauncey, an openly gay businessman and aspiring singer, is happily committed to Abundant Life Church and Pastor Kenneth. He faces a dilemma when he discovers that his pastor has arranged for him to sing at a revival hosted by the gay-bashing Bishop Upchurch...Chauncey's closeted ex boyfriend. Yikes!
I can't give Harris points for his prose style; but he creates vivid characters and he knows how to build suspense. Will Chauncey sing at the revival or stand up for his beliefs? Will he expose Bishop Upchurch? Although I felt Harris copped out on Chauncey at the end, I was delighted to see some nuance in the portrayal of black gay men, and of black religion. In white popular culture, the black church is often used for comic relief, with the underlying assumption that such churches are peopled by overly emotional yet intellectually deficient "holy rollers". The church folks in Harris's novel are all intelligent, mostly well educated and have complicated viws about faith, sexuality and gender roles. This perhaps explains Harris enduring popularity; he was able to present the complexity of modern black life without falling back on stereotypes.
bettyboop25's review against another edition
5.0
This book was good. I enjoyed it and could not put it down.
xterminal's review
4.0
E. Lynn Harris, I Say a Little Prayer (Doubleday, 2006)
I wasn't quite understanding all the flap surrounding this book until very recently, when an African-American friend of mine who lives in California expressed outrage at the fact that Proposition 8 (the anti-gay-marriage proposition) was passed largely because, according to polls, seventy percent of the state's black voters turned out in support of it. Suddenly things got a lot clearer where I Say a Little Prayer is concerned, and I understand a lot more of the reason Harris felt compelled to write this novel. Like many others, I have to say I'm glad he did. This is quite a good little book, even if it does gets tangled up in its own message now and again.
The story focuses on Chauncey Greer, a bisexual black man who's decided that women are more trouble than they're worth, and so has decided to just date men. Problem is, he's got a bad relationship skeleton in the closet, and so these days his life, while successful on the outside, is littered with a string of unsatisfying relationships. Everything goes to hell when that old flame, Sweet D, arrives in town in order to recruit Chauncey to sing at a tent revival. Which is nothing too terrible—Chauncey and D were originally members of the same boy band—until Chauncey realizes that the minister holding the revival whips his members into a frenzy with his strong anti-gay agenda, and that D seems to be part and parcel of the anti-gay package. Clearly, there's a lot more going on under the hood than Chauncey had originally realized. In order to try and fight back against this hatred, Chauncey, in turn, tries to whip up his own congregation, but finds resistance there as well. What's a gay man—and a religious one, to boot—to do?
While Harris is pretty obviously on the outside of all this looking in, he refuses to give in to stereotypes most of the time, and draws his characters with sensitivity, be they gay, bi, or straight, and his plot is compelling enough that he could well just sit back and let the novel write itself, given the strong characterization. Unfortunately, he wants to dabble a time or two in speechifying, but that is little reason not to enjoy the rest of this novel. Homophobes will obviously have a problem with it, but recommended for everyone who actually has a shred of a brain. *** ½
I wasn't quite understanding all the flap surrounding this book until very recently, when an African-American friend of mine who lives in California expressed outrage at the fact that Proposition 8 (the anti-gay-marriage proposition) was passed largely because, according to polls, seventy percent of the state's black voters turned out in support of it. Suddenly things got a lot clearer where I Say a Little Prayer is concerned, and I understand a lot more of the reason Harris felt compelled to write this novel. Like many others, I have to say I'm glad he did. This is quite a good little book, even if it does gets tangled up in its own message now and again.
The story focuses on Chauncey Greer, a bisexual black man who's decided that women are more trouble than they're worth, and so has decided to just date men. Problem is, he's got a bad relationship skeleton in the closet, and so these days his life, while successful on the outside, is littered with a string of unsatisfying relationships. Everything goes to hell when that old flame, Sweet D, arrives in town in order to recruit Chauncey to sing at a tent revival. Which is nothing too terrible—Chauncey and D were originally members of the same boy band—until Chauncey realizes that the minister holding the revival whips his members into a frenzy with his strong anti-gay agenda, and that D seems to be part and parcel of the anti-gay package. Clearly, there's a lot more going on under the hood than Chauncey had originally realized. In order to try and fight back against this hatred, Chauncey, in turn, tries to whip up his own congregation, but finds resistance there as well. What's a gay man—and a religious one, to boot—to do?
While Harris is pretty obviously on the outside of all this looking in, he refuses to give in to stereotypes most of the time, and draws his characters with sensitivity, be they gay, bi, or straight, and his plot is compelling enough that he could well just sit back and let the novel write itself, given the strong characterization. Unfortunately, he wants to dabble a time or two in speechifying, but that is little reason not to enjoy the rest of this novel. Homophobes will obviously have a problem with it, but recommended for everyone who actually has a shred of a brain. *** ½
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