At the close of "How to Sleep at Night," I recalled the buzz that surrounded "Waiting to Exhale" by Terry McMillan in 1992. Penned in a breezy, street-smart style, the novel about four Black women struggling to balance family, romance, and career drew a diverse group of devoted readers.
In her rollicking debut novel, New York Times reporter Elizabeth Harris likewise delivers a dynamic cast of characters working to reconcile their ambitions with the vagaries of life. A successful lawyer and public high school teacher, respectively, Ethan and Gabe are gay, married parents to Chloe, their five-year-old daughter.
Their suburban New Jersey world is upended when Ethan, a once moderate Republican, decides to run for Congress. Gabe, a lifelong Democrat sees "red."
"Ethan had always been to Gabe's right politically, and twenty years ago when they started dating, that was fine," Harris writes. "Gabe was so liberal there wasn't much on his left anyway. ... But over time, Ethan's views had shifted. ... As he became more conservative, the overlapping ground between them narrowed. Today, there was almost nothing left."
In a move that evokes then Senator Barack Obama's "I won't run for President without your blessing" pledge to his skeptical wife, Ethan solicits his husband's support before taking the plunge. "Gabe sat at their dining room table, still, and silent, panicking," Harris continues.
Double-duty
The outcome? Roll tape for Ethan's cadre of campaign managers, image consultants and swank fundraisers for ultra right-wing Republican donors. Then add Fang, an albino milk snake that Chloe receives as "compensation" because her aspiring Congressman dad (glad-handing 24/7) is no longer free to take her to school. Cue Gabe doing double-duty.
Overwhelmed by the upheaval in their home, Gabe declines when Ethan invites him to join a strategy session about his campaign. "It would be rude to add that he'd rather crawl across the West Side Highway blindfolded," Harris writes with the arch humor that infuses the novel.
Running on parallel tracks in the quick-paced narrative, readers find Kate. She's a high-profile reporter at a major newspaper who happens to be a lesbian and ... Ethan's sister. In addition to the stress of office politics, Kate is on the rebound from a failed relationship. Ready for a refresh, she reconnects with Nicole, a former lover who has since married a man (with a penchant for golf), and become a stay-at-home mom in a town of McMansions.
Can you say lesbian drama? About their erotically charged meet-ups, on the down-low, Harris writes, "As their third round arrived, Kate excused herself to go to the bathroom. Alone in a crowd of strangers, Nicole had a moment to sit with the fact that her drinking buddy was someone with whom she used to have lots of illicit sex. She took out her phone to text [her husband], who had made the kids chicken tenders, toast, and apple slices for dinner and encouraged Nicole to stay in the city as late as she wanted."
By the time the tale winds down, opposition research has unearthed an unsavory episode in Ethan's past and Gabe's LGBTQIA+ students have gotten a hate on him because of his mate. Kate is called to account at her newspaper for an alleged ethical breach. A "rogue" photo on Nicole's cellphone triggers, as the Temptations crooned, a "ball of confusion." As snakes are wont to do, Fang slithers hither and yon. Elizabeth Harris keeps readers turning the pages in her skillfully crafted queer saga.
'How to Sleep at Night' by Elizabeth Harris, William Morrow/Harper Collins, $28.99. www.harpercollins.com
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