In fact [law] firms were unstable, churning caldrons of hatred, fury, jealous greed. revolution, florid egomania, sexual intrigue, Shakespearean betrayal, alcoholism, cardiac blackjack, drug use, thievery, and even grandiose fraud -- and were most instructively seen as high-risk mountaineering parties in which some climbers were guaranteed to die.
--Colin Harrison, You Belong to Me (Farrar, Straus and Giroux 2017)
This is Harrison's first book in eight years and though not as dark and intricate as some of his earlier novels it is still an intimate portrait of New Yorkers on the make. The title refers not only to how an Iranian-American businessman views his wife, but also how immigration attorney Paul Reeves feels about the 18th C. maps he covets and how some of the protagonists feel about money. In the same way that a good film director will make even the smallest part come alive Harrison does the same with the many peripheral characters in his story; my favorites include a vermin-control specialist, a "flinty blonde" real estate agent, a weary cop and an assassin with a crossbow. Harrison also vividly portrays New York in all its complex beauty, from Brooklyn to Staten Island, while celebrating things that have not changed (such as The Oyster Bar) and lamenting some that have (such as rent).
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