Mortal Leap
by MacDonald Harris.
New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1964. Also London:
Michael Joseph Ltd., 1964; London, Corgi, 1966.
From the Jacket:
Ben Davenant is a merchant mariner, rebel, drifter, a man who takes love and
life as it comes and wants no part of the world. When his ship is
blown up in the South Pacific, Ben is stripped of
every shred of his personal identity--his face, his name, his fingerprints--and cast
into the sea like a piece of wreckage. Rescued almost against his will, Ben
must at last choose who and what he wants to be.
But it is a choice that he refuses to make until
a dark-haired woman walks
into his hospital room and says that he is her husband.
MacDonald harris has written a provocative novel, a wry
narrative that moves with the exciting power of an
adventure story. In scenes that range from waterfront bars and
brothels to the rarefied atmosphere of the
California gold coast, he creates men and women who
vibrate with a life uniquely their own. His compelling
story of a man's triumphant for
something or someone to care about evokes the humor, the sadness, and
the absurdity of a world that we must all somehow survive.
Reviews
See review on the Neglected Books Page
and multiple reviews on goodreads.
Republication
After being out of print for many years, Mortal Leap, was republished in March of 2024 as part of the Recovered Book series from Boiler House Press. You can purchase the book at https://asterismbooks.com/product/mortal-leap-macdonald-harris. Additionally, a Spanish translation of Mortal Leap will be published in 2025 by Gatopardo Ediciones.
Return to Harris/Heiney publications page