to accept and freely establish his gay identity. Suc-
cessfully employed in a prestigious, predominantly
white law firm, Ray frequents the gay bar scene
and engages in a gay lifestyle outside of work. Ray
develops close platonic friendships with Kyle, an
openly gay fashion designer, and JJ, with whom
he initially had a one-night sexual interlude. They
form a “family” and look out for each other. How-
ever, Ray must still keep his gay lifestyle invisible to
family and coworkers.
When Ray coincidentally encounters Kelvin
six years later, Kelvin introduces him to his fiancé,
Candance; they exchange phone numbers. Ray is
not only shocked to see Kelvin (the reader does not
know how their relationship ended), but also to
learn that he is in a committed heterosexual rela-
tionship. Shortly thereafter, Ray enters a commit-
ted relationship with Quinn, a married man and
simultaneously a heterosexual relationship with
Nicole, Candance’s friend, whom he had met on a
blind date set up by Candance and Kelvin. When he
tells Quinn that he wants “to go back to the other
side exclusively” (216), Quinn responds: “Your de-
sire for me and other men isn’t going away because
you think you’re in love with some woman.... I
know because I live that lie everyday” (218).
In addition to his bisexual desires, Ray strug-
gles with keeping his invisible life from his par-
ents who, during his visit home to Alabama for a
Christmas holiday, query him about his marriage
plans. While there, he also reunites with his former
girlfriend and, although she is engaged, attempts
to seduce her. His fear of having unprotected sex
with her and passing on to her any sexually trans-
mittable disease he might unknowingly have in-
troduces HIV/AIDS as a theme in the novel. Before
Ray leaves for New York, his father tells him, “your
mother and I didn’t raise you to be no sissy” (116),
compounding the issues he faces.
Although he eventually comes out to Nicole,
Ray’s problems are compounded when Nicole
tells him that Candance, Kelvin’s fiancé, has been
diagnosed with AIDS. Becoming despondent, Ray
falls into deep depression and isolates himself in
his apartment. Concerned, his father visits him.
After an all night face-to-face talk, Ray reflects,
“We realized that things and feelings were not
going to be changed in one night, but we started
to break down the barriers” (248). Ray writes a
letter to Nicole asking for her forgiveness and pre-
pares to return to Alabama to sort things out with
his parents. Before he leaves New York, he attends
Candance and Kelvin’s wedding, which occurs in
her hospital room the day before she dies. Ray
gives Nicole the letter and asks her to reply. When
Nicole asks him why Candance had to die from
AIDS, he replies, “I don’t know the answer to that,
Nicole. The only way you can be certain is to have
someone love you enough to tell the truth about
who and what they are” (253). Ray takes a leave of
absence from work and returns home to prevent
any possible fragmentation of his relationship
with his parents. While he is there, his parents ac-
cept his past and commit to supporting him as
he tries to walk away from his invisible life with
the hope that his relationship with Nicole can be
salvaged. Ray is heartened when he receives a call
from Nicole to wish him a happy birthday and to
tell him that their AIDS tests came back negative.
Invisible Life is a novel that conveys the so-
cial realism of a black man searching for his true
identity amidst passion and desire for members
of both sexes. Although he is also concerned
with race, Harris chooses to deemphasize issues
of race to keep the focus on the issues that con-
cerned him: that the black community has ho-
mosexual members among its ranks, that many
of those members engage in bisexual behavior to
mask their homosexual tendencies and relation-
ships, and the harm inflicted on the community
because of its reluctance to acknowledge homo-
sexuals and bisexuals and the proliferation of
AIDS among its ranks.
The novel appears incomplete because it
ends without any resolution for the protagonist.
Though Nicole calls Ray in the last chapter to
wish him a happy birthday, the reader has no idea
if the two will ever marry. Ray’s relationship with
Quinn, though cooled sexually, has also not been
resolved or redefined. However, because of the
author’s final statement, THE END FOR NOW,
the reader can assume that the story is going to
pick up where it is left off in a future novel—and
it does.268 Invisible Life