Alas and alack, another author has departed this world: E. Lynn Harris died on Thursday evening, while on a book promotional tour in Beverly Hills, California.
And, insular person that I am, he was someone I don’t remember ever hearing of until I read that he’d died, and started reading about the reactions all around the world. It’s especially appalling that his name rang no bells, since I have a huge number of gay friends who have introduced me to many books over the years. They must have mentioned him. How did I miss this prolific and popular writer?
The CBC News website described him as someone who used humour and multiple plot lines to bring his readers insight into the lives of black gay men who were “on the down low,” or in the closet. But just having read some of the reactions in the various news sites over the last couple of days, I can see that he had an appeal that went far beyond either black or gay communities.
I’m especially interested – now, alas, after he’s gone – in finding I Say A Little Prayer, since that deals with his struggles with faith, and how the church treats gay people. That’s always a huge topic for me, as an ex-fundamentalist. But it sounds like I should simply pick up and read all his books, and not pick and choose.
Clearly this is a great loss, not just to the literary world, but to the world in general. It sounds like Mr. Harris was doing a vast amount of good in the world, and turning his own struggles into something that could help others. I’m sorry I missed him, until it was too late.
I’ve never read any of his books, but I think the outpouring from fans on different sites has been really touching.