Related Subjects: Author Index Reviews Page 1 2
Book reviews for "Mosley,_Walter" sorted by average review score:

Walter Mosley Prepacked Boxed Set: Devil in a Blue Dress, Red Death, White Butterfly
Published in Paperback by Pocket Books (October, 1995)
Author: Walter Mosley
Amazon base price: $17.97
Average review score:

The first three Easy Rawlings novels are sensational!
When Roger Harris, editor of the Books section of the Star Ledger recomended all the Easy Rawlings novels, someone gave me the 3-book set as a present.

You want to get the three book set! The plots are complicated but there are no loose ends, the characters are strongly drawn, and Mr. Mosley has created a world you will want to return to after reading each novel.

Read them in chronological order, and enjoy!


Black Genius: African American Solutions to African American
Published in Hardcover by W.W. Norton & Company (01 February, 1999)
Authors: Walter Mosley, Manthia Diawara, Clyde Taylor, and Regina Austin
Amazon base price: $4.98
List price: $24.95 (that's 80% off!)
Used price: $9.95
Collectible price: $8.45
Buy one from zShops for: $8.98
Average review score:

Appetizing Food for Thought
This is some of the heaviest reading I have chosen in a long time. While I must say I did not agree with several of the viewpoints of the collective writers, the writing was done with conviction and the ideas were thought-provoking. I recommend this book to any students of African American history, Journalism or Economics. I thought a better title for this work would have been Collective Black Genius.

Diversity of Opinions and Backgrounds very welcoming
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. Too many times the Black community is treated as if we all believe only one idea or follow one way of doing things. "Black Genius" brings out the qualities our many talented Kings and Queens by providing personal narratives with solutions to many concerns that effect the Black Community daily. I highly recommend this book. If you are concerned about issues in the Black community you wont be dissapointed.

EXCELLENT!
The only reason I bought this book is because Walter Mosley's name was attached to it. Mosley is one of America's most valuable treasures, and I jump at any opportunity to experience his words. However, while his essay is excellent, the other authors more than hold their own.

I don't know who the intended audience is for this book, but I think it should be required reading for everyone. From age 15 through 90. Liberal, conservative, egalitarian, libertarian, agnostic, spiritual, what have you.

I cannot put my respect for this book into words. I am saddened with the realization that this book will go unnoticed by many because of a number of reasons. This book deserves much more recognition than it has received to date.


Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned
Published in Hardcover by W.W. Norton & Company (November, 1997)
Author: Walter Mosley
Amazon base price: $16.10
List price: $23.00 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $0.69
Collectible price: $1.58
Buy one from zShops for: $1.87
Average review score:

A good, gritty book about a not-so-good, gritty world
I'm new to Mosley and haven't read any of his detective novels, but I thoroughly enjoyed this quick, easy read. Each chapter told a poignant story, and though they don't come together as in a novel, they do tie together in a meaningful way. Many of the stories are mean and bittersweet, but they are ultimately honest and hopeful, and you can you feel the central character's, Socrates Fortlow's, often-conflicted emotions in dealing with a panolopy of hard choices and various (brought on often by an earlier life of crime) injustices, as well as his incredible determination to build a life out of less than nothing. I highly recommend it.

Outstanding!
Before I read this book, I would never have known that I could fall in love with a character who is a violent ex-convict. Socrates Fortlow, two-time murderer and one-time rapist (at least the crimes of which he has been convicted) has spent most of his life learning to survive behind bars.

However, eight years after his release from the Indiana State Penitentiary, and his relocation to South Central L.A., he has become much more like his namesake. This collection of interrelated short stories together form a remarkable tale of subtle, and perhaps even unconscious, redemption. Socrates becomes a mentor, best friend, and invaluable member of society. In addition, he learns that not all is black and white, whether it be with regard to morality, or as between the races.

The stories and their moral teachings are subtle, like well-crafted fables. I read this in one evening, unable to put down this wonderfully written book.

Mosley just gets better and better
I enjoyed this collection of stories about the remarkable Socrates Fortlow as much as any book I've read in the past several years. The stories are more like chapters in a novel, each building on the prior story, yet each a classic short story that could stand alone. Mosley's use of dialogue and metaphor is simply unparalleled; he brings his protaganists alive like no one else. Readers who have enjoyed the Easy Rawlins series will surely love this book as well. I recommend this book wholeheartedly.


RL's Dream
Published in Audio Download by audible.com ()
Amazon base price: $9.56
List price: $16.95 (that's 44% off!)
Average review score:

Wonderfully touching
There are some writers whose talent is so special that you want to save their books and make the reading of them an occasion. Walter Mosley is one of those writers. He invests his characters with such depth, such full histories that you cannot help but care about them. RL's Dream is populated by a cast of such characters; even the most minor ones (including a baby) are fully fleshed and very real. Soupspoon and Kiki are two almost-lost souls who bring each other back to life in unexpected ways. It is a credit to Mosley's rare and splendid talent that the book itself resonates with music; its cadence is almost audible in the spare prose, the all-too-human behavior of people who, often, do things without even really knowing why. To comprehend the blues, to put words, literally, to a musical theme and to do so in a kind-hearted and deeply understanding fashion is to deliver magic in the form of a book. This is a "must read" novel.

The blues defined through a life meaningfully lived.
I thought this guy just wrote mystery novels. Then I went to hear him read from his latest, "Gone Fishin'" He riveted the room sufficiently for me to feel compelled to ask him which of the titles in his opus was personally his favorite. Not skipping a beat or paying attention to my earnest gaze, he answered, "RL's Dream. It's the one I like best." "Good enough for me," I called, scurrying over to the table piled high with books written by Mosley, each of which was doubtless the favorite of many. The author inscribed my freshly printed copy of his book with, "Rosalind, we miss you back east." Then I strolled home ready to read. I teach expository writing; I read for a living; I talk for a living; and it's frankly hard to capture my unwavering interest--least of all with a should-have-been mystery novel by the author of "Devil in a Blue Dress." Nevertheless I couldn't put this book down. From the first page it held me in a life, breathing with the main character, a dying blues guitarist, RL, who is put out on the street with cancer in his bones and too many memories of the blues life down south to let him sit down and die in peace. The book chronicles his last days of documenting bygone gigs with Robert Johnson, the mythical bluesman who is said to have sold his soul to the Devil to play like no other could. But Mosley's work extends beyond that man and that myth to another lesser-known, also talented blues guitarist who walked in Johnson's shadow to get a handle on his greatness. RL winds up defining the blues, as does every soul, in his own unique fashion. This book should be required reading for anybody who listens to the Blues, or to its grandchild, Rock, or its stepchild, Grunge. "RL's Dream" helps us understand the roots of all those forms that seep into our veins and order our lives around the rhythm, stroke, and cadence of our hearts.

Mosley's language captures the power of the blues.
I love music, but I know very little about the blues. I had heard of Robert Johnson before I read this book-but I knew nothing about him, really. Half way through this book I felt compelled to stop on my way home from work and buy the Robert Johnson Anthology. Mosley does for storytelling and language, what Johnson did for the blues. If you read the book, you'll understand that this is an enormous compliment. One that Mosley would probably shy away from, but don't let him! The story is hard and sad, beautiful and funny and full of terrific charcters - much like a good blues number. The only thing that stops me from gibing this book a "10" is the quick way that Mosley more-or-less disposes of the Kiki character at the end of the novel. Soupspoon's passing is both beautiful and memorable. Kiki's felt like the goofy adendum's that appear at the end of "American Graffitti." A minor complaint though.


Walkin' the Dog
Published in Hardcover by Serpents Tail (27 April, 2000)
Author: Walter Mosley
Amazon base price: $
Average review score:

Post-Modern Socrates
Socrates Fortlow returns in Walter Mosley's second collection of stories about the ex-con trying to find his place and beliefs in a radically changed world now that he's out of prison. "Always Outnmubered, Always Outgunned" introduced the not-so-gentle giant and found a ready audience in Mosley fans and a new audience seduced by Socrates' coming to terms with his new life and learning to understand who is he is in relation to it. The dozen stories here deal with his slow progress into a post-modern world, sometimes against his will - he is a man who resists even getting a telephone because he is afraid it will make him too available and possibly vulnerable. But away from prison for a long enough time, eventually his defenses begin to transform, as in the church discussion group he joins where he discovers real hope within. This is a fascinating journal of one man's spiritual journey that reflects many of today's hot button issues, and makes me eager to see where Mosley will take the admirable Socrates Fortlow next.

A Moral Message
A dozen linked episodes form the return of Socrates Fortlow, the 60ish ex-con who first appeared in Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned. Of course, when the main character is named Socrates, you shouldn't be surprised when his story turns out to be a metaphor. Socrates is a man whose daily life is suffused with his past (he spent 27 years in jail for murdering two friends), and is engaged in a constant struggles break free of that past and try and live somewhat normally in the Watts ghetto he calls home. He's cautious and tentative about new opportunities and options before him, seeing traps and pitfalls in every deviation from his simple, spartan life. It's not difficult to see how Mosley is using Socrates to embody disenfranchised black men everywhere and give voice to their (and his) own inner conflicts as black men in contemporary society.

Central to this is anger'a theme that pervades not only Socrates' life, but that of those around him. Throughout the book, Socrates bubbles with an undefined rage at his surroundings, and ultimately he must find some way to accommodate that rage without letting it consume him. Even so, the good side of Socrates is always plainly evident: he's a father figure to a young boy, cares for his two-legged dog, and saves the life of a drunk. That's not to say that he's a "good" person, because he has killed people, but he is a man that's trying to do good things with life despite his past and despite the turmoil within him. Through his interactions with a neighborhood discussion group (a somewhat clumsy device) and a self-styled revolutionary, Socrates comes to discover that he has a right to be angry, but it's how that anger is channeled that will decide his fate. This is played out in a rushed and melodramatic final story that fits thematically with the rest of the book, but is kind of jarring.

Ultimately, the book's message is reasonably clear. Black men need to translate their anger into productive action and free themselves of the mental shackles that keep them from fulfilling their potential. For every person, this means something different, but even those who have committed the greatest sin can live a moral life. Which is not to say their aren't evil people in the world'or in their own community'but just because one lives in a ghetto doesn't mean the only solution is to leave. Rather, stay in the community and try and make it better'even though the man is trying to keep you down.

Excllent storyline and street philosophy
After residing as a guest of the State of Indiana for half of his life, sexagenarian Socrates Fortlow has gone straight for the past decade, living in Los Angeles. However, once convicted as a murderer-rapist, always convicted by the police. Any violent crime in the neighborhood means Socrates is one of the usual suspects. In his brave barren world, Socrates is becoming a champion of the underdog (human and canine), but has no idea where his new role will lead him.

WALKIN' THE DOG is actually an interrelated short story collection that works because Walter Mosley makes each story show growth in Socrates. Nothing is sacred especially society's major social, political, and racial issues as the star of the book lives up to his more illustrious namesake with a street corner philosophy. Readers will enjoy this anthology and want to read the first Socrates story (see ALWAYS OUTNUMBERED, ALWAYS OUTGUNNED) as well as demand from Mr. Mosley a follow-up tale that shows what happens to the lead protagonist at the crosswalk of life.

Harriet Klausner


A Little Yellow Dog
Published in Audio Cassette by Audio Renaissance (June, 1996)
Authors: Walter Mosley and Paul Winfield
Amazon base price: $11.87
List price: $16.95 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $8.29
Collectible price: $8.99
Buy one from zShops for: $12.99
Average review score:

Another Winner From Walter Mosley
Can a book have atmosphere? If it can, then this book has it. The descriptions of the school yard took me back, in a flash, to my elementary school in Long Beach, California years ago. Do you remember school rooms in bungalows? And tetherball? Mosley is absolutely THE master of dialogue. Sometimes too much of one author can get tiresome, but not in this case. I read BLACK BETTY just before this book and the dialogue continues to be fresh and sparkling. I enjoyed the dry humor sprinkled throughout the story. It suits Easy very well and I'd like to see more of it in future books. The foray into the culinary experience was another new addition that I liked a lot. The main story line held together well and moved along almost effortlessly. I finished this book yesterday and I still don't know how I feel about the ending. I'm sure it will stay with me for a long while. Walter Mosley is one of the best authors around today, in my opinion. I eagerly await the next installment in the saga of Easy Rawlins.

Another Winner From Walter Mosley
Can a book have atmosphere? If it can, then this book has it. The descriptions of the school yard took me back, in a flash, to my elementary school in Long Beach, California years ago. Do you remember school rooms in bungalows? And tetherball? Mosley is absolutely THE master of dialogue. Sometimes too much of one author can get tiresome, but not in this case. I read BLACK BETTY just before this book and the dialogue continues to be fresh and sparkling. I enjoyed the dry humor sprinkled throughout the story. It suits Easy very well and I'd like to see more of it in future books. The foray into the culinary experience was another new addition that I liked a lot. The main story line held together well and moved along almost effortlessly. I finished this book yesterday and I still don't know how I feel about the ending. I'm sure it will stay with me for a long while. Walter Mosley is one of the best authors around today, in my opinion. I eagerly await the next installment in the saga of Easy Rawlins

Another Winner From Walter Mosley
Can a book have atmosphere? If it can, then this book has it. The descriptions of the school yard took me back, in a flash, to my elementary school in Long Beach, California years ago. Do you remember school rooms in bungalows? And tetherball? Mosley is absolutely THE master of dialogue. Sometimes too much of one author can get tiresome, but not in this case. I read BLACK BETTY just before this book and the dialogue continues to be fresh and sparkling. I enjoyed the dry humor sprinkled throughout the story. It suits Easy very well and I'd like to see more of it in future books. The foray into the culinary experience was another new addition that I liked a lot. The main story line held together well and moved along almost effortlessly. I finished this book yesterday and I still don't know how I feel about the ending. I'm sure it will stay with me for a long while. Walter Mosley is one of the best authors around today, in my opinion. I eagerly await the next installment in the saga of Easy Rawlins


Black Betty
Published in Audio Cassette by Books on Tape (December, 1994)
Author: Walter Mosley
Amazon base price: $56.00
Average review score:

Dead Heat
Raymond Chandler made the definitive statement about L.A.'s Santa Ana Winds at the beginning of his short story "Red Wind." In Easy Rawlins' L.A., the hot, dry winds that fill the lungs with cactus dust and make the skin peel around the fingernails never seem to stop.

Easy is in search of an erotic dream woman from his childhood who is being sought by one of those rich white families who have more skeletons than clothes in their closets. Around the same time, the very dangerous Raymond "Mouse" Alexander is released from the pen; and Easy's attempt to make a killing in the real estate market run up against a brick wall.

There are plot threads aplenty, and enough characters to fill a passenger liner. Mosley is too good a writer to leave any threads untied, but I do get lost at times with some of the characters. One bad dude is not heard from for a hundred pages when he commits a particularly heinous murder at the very end. "Oh, yeah, wasn't he the guy that ...?" Sometimes, I would have welcomed the list of characters, complete with nicknames, that occasionally accompanies an 800-page Russian novel.

What makes this a minor complaint is that Mosley has such a great sense of place and so much feeling for his characters. We don't meet the character he calls "Black Betty" until the end of the novel, but we keep seeing vignettes from Easy's past that keep building up the suspense, and any expectations are more than fulfilled by an ending that is bloodier than the last act of Hamlet.

Easy Rawlins Is An Easy Read
Easy Rawlins is a complex character. I enjoy getting to know him better in each of Mosley's books. But because Walter Mosley has such a wonderful talent for character development, I probably will never have Easy figured out completely. What amazes me about these books is that they read like a serial but any one of them can stand on it's own without any long, detailed introductions or explanations. Black Betty does not disappoint. Easy juggles several situations at once and manages to bring order and justice to his world by the end of the book. I think the most endearing quality of Easy's is the love and care he gives to his kids, Jesus and Feather. The time spent with his family gives a good balance to the darker side of his life on the streets. There are some big surprises in this story...some good and some sad and good at the same time. I bought this book a long time ago and saved it until the next Easy Rawlings book came out so I could read them both at the same time because when I finish a Walter Mosley book I always want more. I wish he could write 'em as fast as I can read 'em

Easy Rawlins Is An Easy Read
Easy Rawlins is a complex character. I enjoy getting to know him better in each of Mosley's books. But because Walter Mosley has such a wonderful talent for character development, I probably will never have Easy figured out completely. What amazes me about these books is that they read like a serial but any one of them can stand on it's own without any long, detailed introductions or explanations. Black Betty does not disappoint. Easy juggles several situations at once and manages to bring order and justice to his world by the end of the book. I think the most endearing quality of Easy's is the love and care he gives to his kids, Jesus and Feather. The time spent with his family gives a good balance to the darker side of his life on the streets. There are some big surprises in this story...some good and some sad and good at the same time. I bought this book a long time ago and saved it until the next Easy Rawlings book came out so I could read them both at the same time because when I finish a Walter Mosley book I always want more. I wish he could write 'em as fast as I can read 'em.


Bad Boy Brawly Brown (Walker Large Print Books)
Published in Paperback by Large Print Press (August, 2003)
Author: Walter Mosley
Amazon base price: $10.36
List price: $12.95 (that's 20% off!)
Average review score:

We've waited so long for Easy's return and it was worth it!
I have been a faithful reader of the Easy Rawlins mystery series since 1994 when a friend turned me on to them. I had just moved to Los Angeles and she thought it would be a good way to introduce me to the history of the city. Boy was she right! This latest novel was fast paced, thoughtful and a thoroughly good read. I couldn't put it down and spent the weekend with Easy as he tries to help his friend John and snatch himself back from the depression that has plagued him since the "death" of his best friend, Mouse. I love the addition of his love interest, Bonnie, who is Easy's equal in every way and a good balance to his loner ways as the seeker of information and solver of problems. All I can say is thank you, thank you, thank you for bringing back Easy and let's not wait so long for the next one Mr. Mosley!

Easy is back
Finally, after a long wait, Walter Mosley has given us the next installment in the Easy Rawlins mystery series. And, no surprise, Bad Boy Brawly Brown does not disappoint.

Set among the gang wars and internal race politics of Compton, California, Bad Boy Brawly Brown is the story of a young man caught up in a political movement that becomes something too big for him to handle. The boy, however, happens to be the stepson of Easy's close friend, John.

When Brawly runs off to join the Urban Revolutionary Party (kind of like the Black Panthers), John gets worried and asks Easy to help him out. What follows is a tense, urban thriller where Easy (haunted by the voice of his maybe dead friend Mouse) is trying to save Brawly before he sinks too deeply into the shady underworld of Compton.

Mosley has, yet again, created soem incredibly real characters with complicated, yet believable, problems. One of the best elements of Bad Boy Brawly Brown is the exploration of the father-son relationship between Easy and his son Juice in parallel with John and Brawly. This added character development elevtaes BBBB above the genre mysteries and keeps Mosley at the top of his field.

For anyone who likes some brains with their mysteries, Walter Mosley is the man.

OUTSTANDING!!!!
Easy Rawlins is still trying to accept the alleged death of his long time friend and companion, Raymond " Mouse" Alexander. For three months, Easy is haunted by his own thoughts and doubts - "He's dead becuase of me" and he is in a deep depression. Until he receives a call from John, a freind from Houston who simply wants him to find his step-son, Brawley.

In his search for Brawley, Easy enters the world of the Urban Revolutionary, a political group that wants to make life better for the residents of Compton. But there is somehting else going that only Easy can uncover. Through his investigation, readers become reacquainted with Mofass, Jewelle, Odell, Jesus, Feather and the little yellow dog. As Easy searches the dark streets of Compton he recalls lessons he has learned from Mouse and surprisingly one from Fearless Jones that helps him understand the man that he has become.

There are plenty of concurrent themes throughout the novel - father/son relationship, foster children, children growing up without parents, grief, depression, child abuse, greed and a parents love for their children. Mosley tied them all together to give his readers a wonderful, suspense novel.

What can you say about Walter Mosley! Not enough! He is an extraordinary writer and we are glad to have him and Easy back! You'll find each page is a cliff hanger. Mosley has a way of giving you just enough to make you turn the page to find out more. But pay attention - because as soon as you think you have it solved - you realize that you Mosley is and will always be the Master of mysteries.

Peace and Blessings!!


Gone Fishin'
Published in Audio Download by audible.com ()
Amazon base price: $7.16
List price: $17.95 (that's 60% off!)
Average review score:

A soul searching look at the early life of Easy Rawlins
Mosley, Walter. Gone Fishin'. Black Classics. Jan. 1997. 244pages. ISBN 1-57478-025-5. $22. There can be no better way to start off the year than with Easy Rawlins. Fans already needing a fix after Mosley's recent "A Little Yellow Dog" get happy, Easy and Mouse are back in this "prequel" to the series. This latest novel is actually Mosley's original Easy/Mouse story written in the late 80s but never released. Gone Fishin' follows the classic search for father motif-literally for Mouse and figuratively for the 19-year-old Rawlins who finds himself a very un-Easy rider on a road trip to Pariah, TX, to strong-arm Mouse's step daddyReese for money. Easy quickly lands up to here in trouble that includes witchcraft, fevered sex, a fleeing killer, and a few dead bodies. While Mouse is facing down his wicked stepfather, Easy must exorcise the demons of his own past in order to achieve a coming of age that's steeped in blood, guilt, and forgiveness. Not a straight mystery like earlier volumes in the series, Gone Fishin' is a more spiritual novel that reaches into the characters' pasts to reveal their souls. Mosley delivers the goods every time and Easy fans are going to eat this up. Highly recommended.-Michael Rogers,

An Interesting Footnote to the Rawlins Mysteries
Though it was originally meant to be the first book in the Easy Rawlins series, _Gone Fishin'_ is only now seeing the light of day. Fans of Walter Mosley's series will want to read this book, as it provides important background information on his characters Easy and Mouse. Not a mystery per se, this book gives us a convincing and moving coming of age story that explains a lot about the adult Easy and his friend Mouse, filling in important details that are only hinted at in the rest of the series

A Great Summer Read!
If you're looking for a true summer adventure--and you happen to be a fan of Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins series--don't miss this one. "Gone Fishin'" is a prequel to the other novels--it begins in Houston in the late 1930's where Easy and his murderous pal Mouse are two young black men looking for fortune in a white man's world. That leads them on trip into the dark recesses of the East Texas Piney Woods, where the city boys discover there's plenty of sex, black magic and killing out under the trees. Mosley wonderfully captures the dialect of that region from that era--to me, it had a familiar ring. To others, it may require a bit of concentration, but it's worth the effort. With "Gone Fishin'", Mosley has created a grownup "Huck Finn" style adventure that reads like a movie. If you're like me, after Denzel Washington's portrayal of Easy in "Devil In A Blue Dress", you see Denzel in your head whenever you're reading about Easy Rawlins. Imagine him as a youngster--not yet the cool sleuth he'll become later in LA--and you've got the character Mosley creates for "Gone Fishin'". The only bad thing I can say about this book is that I was finished with it before I wanted to be.


The Stolen White Elephant and Other Detective Stories (Oxford Mark Twain)
Published in Hardcover by Oxford University Press (November, 1996)
Authors: Mark Twain, Shelley Fisher Fishkin, and Walter Mosley
Amazon base price: $25.00
Used price: $15.32
Collectible price: $15.34

Related Subjects: Author Index Reviews Page 1 2

Reviews are from readers at Amazon.com. To add a review, follow the Amazon buy link above.