Title: The Harem
Author: Lawrence Burk
Publisher: Westwood Books Publishing
ISBN: 978-1-64803-288-2
Pages: 186
Genre: Crime / Psychological Mystery
Reviewed by: Jake Bishop
Hollywood Book Reviews
Author Lawrence Burk has penned a story of one woman’s journey from betrayal and tragedy to the opposite ends of the spectrum in this psychological character study of Vivian Bouvier, an individual who refuses to take on the mantle of victim and sets out to right past wrongs regardless of what is necessary to do so. Her’s is a tale of overcoming both circumstance and odds to exact a type of revenge that has the power not only to thwart evildoers but also to lift up the oppressed. Vivian’s personal magnetism and persuasive powers enable her to recruit an unlikely collection of the afflicted to turn the tables on their tormentors and to recognize their own capabilities and self-worth in the process.
The narrative begins in New Orleans in the early eighties. Vivian is a child of a father who never actually knew she existed and a prostitute who deserts her offspring and leaves the girl with her grandmother—a local median who many consider to be associated with voodoo and the black arts. As such, Vivian is ostracized and kept away from other children by overprotected and narrow-minded parents. Her only real friend is John, who is attracted to the strange girl and she to him. But fate intervenes and John and his mother wind up moving to the Mississippi Gulf Coast into an antebellum mansion named Castle Rouge. Vivian vows not only to be with him again, but also to attain all that she feels she is entitled to for the indignities she’s been forced to endure throughout her sordid childhood and adolescence.
The remainder of the plot unspools slowly as Vivian sets her sights on both John and Castle Rouge, which has been converted into a functioning casino. Vivian is wise enough to realize that the place is only taking in a mere pittance of what it might if it added a few additions to its operation. Those additions being sound equipment, hidden cameras, a penchant for blackmail, and a cadre of lovely ladies schooled in separating bankers, politicians, lawyers, teachers, preachers, and more, from their morals and often from their pants. Vivian recruits the lovelies and secures their loyalty by convincing them they work for her and themselves rather than the house.
Complications ensue, as they often do in these sorts of chronicles, when powerful drug lords and criminals attempt to get in on the action. Just who is doing what to whom becomes complicated as Vivian and her girls attempt to abscond with enough money to set them up for life. Connivance and trickery come into play, but will they be enough to exact the revenge Vivian is after along with the future she aspires to?
Burk tells his story in the third person and in so doing sometimes leaves readers with a feeling of reportage rather than being right in the middle of the action. He does cast his characters well and provides enough back-story on each of them to make their individual plights relatively empathetic. The text is filled with numerous reflections on, reactions to, and remembrances of sexual encounters, but they seldom if ever lapse into unnecessarily detailed couplings. The author is obviously far more interested in exploring emotional motivation rather than physical titillation. If you are likewise inclined, you might enjoy getting to know The Harem.