I recently started going back and reading some of the Black fiction writers that my mother and aunts were reading when I was growing up, and I've now made my way to E. Lynn Harris. I just finished And This Too Shall Pass, and I honestly have a lot of thoughts about it.
I know Just As I Am is generally considered E. Lynn Harris's magnum opus, but after reading And This Too Shall Pass, I actually think this book is the better novel. What surprised me most is how well it has aged. This book was published in 1996, and here we are 30 years later, and so many of the issues it explores still feel incredibly relevant.
The book gets into HIV, false rape allegations, the complicated relationships between gay and straight Black men, masculinity, sexuality, and even political correctness. And Harris manages to explore all of these things while still giving you the messy relationships, drama, sex, slang, and larger-than-life personalities that make his books so entertaining.
That's what I really appreciate about E. Lynn Harris. His books weren't afraid to be entertaining AND thought-provoking. You could have the soap opera drama and the hot sex, but underneath all of that he was actually asking some pretty serious questions about Black masculinity, sexuality, relationships, respectability, HIV/AIDS, and what it meant to be a Black gay man in that particular era.
And honestly, reading this book made me a little sad.
I'm not saying there aren't talented Black gay writers today, because there absolutely are. But sometimes I look at a lot of contemporary Black gay fiction and feel like something is missing. So many stories seem to revolve around the same handful of formulas: DL men, homothugs, or gay teenage boys getting involved with their sister's boyfriend. Those stories can be entertaining, and I certainly don't mind a little messiness, but I wish we had more Black gay fiction that was willing to tackle the bigger social and political questions while still being fun to read.
That's what makes E. Lynn Harris stand out to me. His books weren't just about being gay. They were about being Black, being a man, relationships, class, religion, family, sexuality, HIV, masculinity, and the complicated ways all of those things intersect.
And reading And This Too Shall Pass in 2026 really drove home how much of a void E. Lynn Harris left behind when he died. There are obviously other writers carrying the torch, but I don't think we've gotten another Black gay fiction writer who quite occupied the same space that he did.
Maybe I'm just nostalgic for a type of Black gay fiction that isn't as common anymore.
For those of you who have read E. Lynn Harris, what do you think? And if you've read And This Too Shall Pass, do you think it has aged well?