Bodies Electric

by Colin Harrison

Against every instinct of urban survival, the head of long-range planning at a major US media-entertainment empire takes in a beautiful troubled woman and her young daughter, and is plunged into a perilous fight for his home, his job and his life. By the author of "Break and Enter".

Genres: Thriller, Fiction, Mystery, Mystery Thriller

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Colin Harrison is a crime novelist. He is a vice president and senior editor at Scribner.
He lives in Park Slope, Brooklyn, with his wife, the writer Kathryn Harrison, and their three children (Sarah, Walker and Julia).

He attended: Haverford College, BA 1982; University of Iowa Writers' Workshop. MFA 1986

His short nonfiction has appeared in The New York Times, New York Magazine, The Washington Post, The Chicago Tribune, Vogue, Salon, Worth, and other various publications.

Reviews

[Glenn Russell · Rating 5 out of 5]

"My name is Jack Whitman and I should never have had the first thing to do with her."
- Colin Harrison, Bodies Electric

Colin Harrison's novel is not only a thriller but a study in sociology, psychology and cross cultural collisions, a novel of hard-boiled language and fast-paced action. As by way of example, I'll link my comments to several quotes from the opening pages:

Thriller - "My name is Jack Whitman and I should never have had the first thing to do with her - not with what was happening at the Corporation at the time. But I'm as weak hearted for love and greedy for power as the next guy, maybe more so. And I was crazy for the sex - of course that was part of it." Jack Whitman is the first-person narrator and this is how the novel opens, an opening Raymond Chandler and his fictional private-eye Phillip Marlow would appreciate.

Sociology - "And it was equally clear that if the woman had been dressed in a pair of tight jeans and cheap red pumps, she might be a New York-born Puerto Rican whore addicted to self-destruction, carrying a purse filed with rubbers and wrinkled bills and selling herself to all comers at the entrance to the Lincoln Tunnel, a woman who, despite providence's gift of fine bones and large, deep eyes, was forced to love life faster and harder than was ever meant." The author has Jack Whitman make pointed, telling and sometimes scathing observations about society on nearly every page.

Psychology - "Morrison, second in command in the Corporation, the man everyone feared . . . . Morrison had lost half a leg and most of a hand as a Navy SEAL in Vietnam, having survived, he had the confidence of five men. Combat had shown him that we are all merely walking bags of meat, and once a man has decided that, all manner of brilliant scheming becomes possible." Indeed, Harrison's novel is a study in corporate psychology. One could argue Bodies Electric should be required reading for anybody contemplating a career in the business world, particularly the American business world.

Cross-Cultural Collisions - "What is certain is that as Liz waited for the light, a silver BMW with tinted windows . . . pulled over and someone poked the short metal barrel of a nine-millimeter semi-automatic pistol over the electric window and started shooting. . . . Liz was right in the way of it." Liz was Jack Whitman's beautiful young pregnant wife and both Liz and her seven month old daughter in the womb were killed by a Harlem gang's bullets. New York City aka the Big Apple as the American melting pot on speed. Harrison loves the city (and he said so directly in an interview) and captures NYC's hyper-energizing hum.

The characters play for high stakes, as well they should, since they are each caught in an emotionally-charged net of circumstances and faced with life and death choices. Regarding our main character, Jack Whitman - he sees the twenty-something cinnamon-skinned beauty with her little four-year-old girl on the subway in two ways: as Madonna and Child and as an exotic sexually-charged object of desire.

In the aftermath of his tragic loss, the magnetic pull is too powerful to resist (one way to think of Whitman's attraction is in terms of Carl Jung's archetype, the "anima"). Whitman hands her his business card and offers help, which turns out to be the first step in a series of events swirling himself and others in unexpected and sometimes dark, violent directions. For my money, Bodies Electric is a modern classic.


American author Colin Harrison, born 1960, has had a lifelong fascination with New York City - the energy with which he writes about the Big Apple shines through on every page.

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

2⭐️ = Below Average.
Paperback.
Overall, the writing was okay, but it was too heavy handed on the ‘corporation’ and not enough written about the mysterious woman and her child. Not a particularly dynamic ending.

[Eric_W · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jack Whitman is a lonely VP (his wife had been killed in a drive-by several years earlier) in the “Corporation,” which is the largest media company in the world. One day on the way home he sees a woman and her four-year-old daughter on the subway (no cabs being available in the rain) and as she gets off, gives her his card, saying he could help her with a job. He thinks nothing more of it until she and her daughter arrive at his 39th floor office. She loses the job he gets her within a week. Against his better judgment (I’ll say) he locates the woman again. He finds a place for her to live in a building being remodeled, but the woman's husband discovers her location, trashes the building and they barely escape. So he invites her to stay in his house where he has an empty basement apartment.

In the meantime, there is a coup and counter-coup going on at the “Corporation.” At first I thought all the corporate stuff was getting in the way of the story, but as things progress, you realize that all of that is integral to defining who Jack is. Rather than supply additional details and litter my review with spoilers, I’ll just note that for me the book was a meditation on what it means to be a family and how members of families interact (or don’t) under external and personal pressures.

The technology is dated (wow, a 256 megabyte chip - that’s huge), but the human interactions and conflict are not. Harrison writes really well and the sense of foreboding clutches at the reader throughout driving one forward toward the conclusion. This is the third Harrison I’ve read, and he’s now on the must-read list.

[Rick Bentley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Harrison is without doubt my favourite author. It's a long time since I read this novel, but at a push, I would say it's my favourite. I'm planning on treating myself in the summer & enjoying it once more as a prelude to his forthcoming release 'You belong to me'. This will be his first release in 8 years and the wait has been tortuous, especially as he's an author who seemingly shuns the limelight and has virtually no on-line presence.

Like all Harrison's novels, Bodies Electric is a superior thriller with a detailed but highly believable plot full of intrigue, risk, tension and some pretty dark incidents and even darker consequences.

If you've not read any of Harrison's work, do yourself a favour and welcome him in to your life - I'm confident you won't be disappointed.

[Dan Downing · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beyond the story itself, one must recognize that this book was published in 1993. Thus most of the material most probably was written and organized in 1992 or earlier. As such, the forecasts about the future of technology are quite astute and grossly accurate.

As for the novel itself, we have a well-written book of suspense operating on two levels: the corporate intrigue and the whacky love triangle. A story of love, greed, passion, loss---great loss for everybody no matter how fortunate they may seem.

I warn the reader that those looking for upbeat, happy meal type experience might do well to search elsewhere. "Bodies Electric" has its heartwarming moments and triumphant ploys, but will not leave you jauntily moving to the shelves for your next volume. Altogether, a deeply affecting experience.

Recommended

[Ed · Rating 2 out of 5]

I like Harrison which is why I will eventually read another book of his WAY down the line. I looked up when this was written and it's 20 years old and may be his first book which explains a lot. Had I read this first I wouldn't read anything else by him. This book has potential up the yin-yang and some compelling things going on but man, was this long and unsatisfying. It was like someone squeezing a balloon and instead of it popping the guy squeezing had his life ruined. It was misery upon misery and really disturbingly graphic as if Harrison knew I was getting bored and was trying to see if I was paying attention. I was between this and another book of his and whoever wrote the description of this book is a genius because this was a bait and switch. I am still going two stars because it wasn't totally without merit. But just barely.

[Skip · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like Colin Harrison. Gritty, down to earth. This book tells the story of a rising corporate executive, who lost his wife and unborn baby in a random act of street violence. Drawn into a megamedia merger, he falls for a young mother and her daughter without realizing how much baggage both she and he carry. Some good plot twists, some predictable.

[S.A. Cosby · Rating 4 out of 5]

A wonderful modern tale of love, hope and redemption set against the backdrop of the twinkling Manhattan skyline. With rich characters and a full bodied story this book has stayed with me months after I read the last page

[Kristie Novak · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book wasn't bad. The overall ploy was good, but I felt a lot of it just rambled on and on about his job. It felt forced during a lot of it. It wasn't anything amazing.

[Dean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not quite the equal of "Manhattan Nocturne," but galvanizing, and a page turner all the same. Interestingly, both this book and "Nocturne" feature a crucial character who is Chairman of the Board of a relevant enterprise. Sort of a ghastly father figure linking the two novels loosely together.

[Lucas · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was introduced to me as a holder of the "New York vibe" by an old and wise man. I was born in 1993 the year it was written.
You'll be walking the streets of NY while you read it, its darkness and thrill will carry you all the way.
Loved this one!

[Enda Carroll · Rating 4 out of 5]

Colin Harrison is a beautiful writer. Every sentence is quality and every word adds value. He is also a courageous writer. He writes deeply about issues. He pulls at the thread, and is brave enough to go where it leads. In the above book, he is acutely prescient about future events, including the direction of politics and technology. It's amazing that this book was first published in 1993, as the book forecasts future trends so accurately that it feels like it was written post-2001.

Bodies Electric is a rather sad study on the various socioeconomic classes of New York, the lives they lead, how they interact, and how they conflict. Even in 1993, the writer was communicating how the merging of conglomerate power can lead to outsized profits for a few, but a broken social contract for many.

The author presents a 'solution' to this social conflict, and it's a realistic one, but it's not a pleasant one. The book ends rather abruptly, on that unpleasant note. You get the sense that justice was not served. But I think that was exactly the author's point all along. A great book, interesting to the end.

[Pete Camp · Rating 2 out of 5]

Jack Whitman is a high level executive in The Corporation and is dealing with the constant grief of losing his wife and unborn baby to a drive by shooting. One fateful day he meets Dolores and her daughter Maria on the subway and their lives are suddenly intertwined. Both are trying to escape their past. The author presents themes of the class divide in this country, got a little bogged down in parts pertaining to corporate America and high level business mergers and acquisitions

[Kerry · Rating 3 out of 5]

Even though it was obvious what was going to happen, I still hated the ending! Enjoyed the way it was written very much. Serves me right.

[John Eastman · Rating 3 out of 5]

One of his earlier works, not bad, a little dated. He is a keen observer of the way different classes of people all exist together in NYC.