Book Description
Supervisory Management blends skill-building opportunities and traditional management principles to prepare learners to become supervisors in today's business world. The central theme of Supervisory Management is working through people--developing and empowering them to become better and more efficient in their roles. It closely follows the SCANS requirements for workplace competencies and foundation of skills and personal qualities needed for job performance. The text offers practical insights and advice to address common managerial situations, making it a useful reference for supervisors throughout their careers. In this sixth edition, the authors continue their "hands on" approach with numerous self-checks and skill-building opportunities, even more applications exercises.
Average customer rating:
- Not Mosley's Best Work
- Disgusting
- Brace Yourself
- Just OK...
- Excellent book, excellent transaction
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Killing Johnny Fry: A Sexistential Novel
Walter Mosley
Manufacturer: Bloomsbury USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Mosley, Walter
| African American
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Contemporary
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Adult Fiction
| Erotica
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General
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General
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Mosley, Walter
| ( M )
| Authors, A-Z
| Mystery & Thrillers
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General
| Mystery & Thrillers
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47
ASIN: 159691226X
Release Date: 2006-12-26 |
Book Description
This bold new novel from Walter Mosley startles in both its rawness and its honest portrayal of a man on a quest for sexual redemption in midlife. When Cordell Carmel catches his longtime girlfriend with another man, the act that he witnesses seems to dissolve all the boundaries he knows. In that instant, the calm existence of this middle-aged New York City man becomes something unrecognizable: he wants revenge, but also something more. Killing Johnny Fry is the story of Cordell’s dark, funny, soulful, and outrageously explicit sexual odyssey in search of a new way of life. His guide is a mysterious woman named Sisypha, who leads him deep into the erotic heart of the city.
Killing Johnny Fry marks new territory for Walter Mosley, bestselling author of Devil in a Blue Dress and many other books in different genres: sci-fi, politics, literary fiction. It will surprise, provoke, inspire, and make you blush. Above all, it is about a man questioning the rules we take for granted—and the powerful and sometimes disturbing connections that occur between people when these rules are removed.
Customer Reviews:
Not Mosley's Best Work.......2007-07-17
Walter Mosley describes his latest work, Killing Johnny Fry, as a sexistential novel. The protagonist, Cordell Carmel, a middle aged black man, has a sexual awakening after discovering his girl friend of 8 years having a torrid affair. Seeing his lover and only friend in the arms of another man drives Cordell to places and situations that he never imagined.
Mosley invites readers into Cordell's rapidly changing world to witness his emotional odyssey and subsequent sexual metamorphosis. Cordell is transformed from a mild mannered and straight-laced free-lance translator, to a lustfully, wanton artist's agent. Mosley details every aspect of Cordell's transformation including his nearly uncontrollable desire to kill his girl friend's new lover, Johnny Fry.
True to form, Mosley uses words to weave his intriguing tale; however, unlike his other novels, the graphic nature of the sex is atypical of his style. It's quite raw, gritty and somewhat vulgar. I was able to get past the vast sexual content and concentrate on the characters and their development. Mosley did a great job of filling the back story of the interesting cast of characters, many of whom has some form of sexual dysfunction or abuse in their pasts.
This book is not for the faint of heart. Although the sexual content is a significant part of the story, Mosley seems intent upon achieving maximum shock value. The extreme sexual content makes this an adult only read.
Disgusting.......2007-06-07
I read this book because I was told it's different, maybe "Zanest".
I got more than I expected. To me, it is pure porn. The main character lusts after women just for the sake of lusting - if that makes any sense at all. My book club will read it soon and even though I read it a few months ago, I still have a bad taste in my mouth. I won't be able to attend. I absolutely hated this book.
Brace Yourself.......2007-05-22
Be Warned this isn't your typical Walter Mosley book. I found myself drawn into the main characters pain, i really didn't know what to feel at times i was mad, excited and ultimately pleased with the way this book ended. If you are a long time Mosley reader like I am this book may be a little dark for your taste, but if you are going through a relationship that for some reason is causing you delicious pain and just want a way to escape, buy this book i guarantee you'll read it more than once.
Just OK..........2007-05-14
My husband raves about Walter Mosley and this was my first introduction to one of his books. I didn't care for it much but I'm going to read a couple of his other books and see if I like those better. If it hadn't been for the voracious sex scenes it would have been pretty boring.
Excellent book, excellent transaction.......2007-05-14
this book was chosen by my book club to read for the month of April. I thoroughly enjoyed Mr. Mosley's departure from his standard mystery fare. I was quite pleased. I didn't consider this erotica as Mr. Mosley used sex primarily to progress the story and give an outward reference to the character's inward state of mind, not in a blatant effort to arouse the reader (or the sex scenes could have gone on for pages and pages). The main character had an existential meltdown that manifested itself through sex. That's it. Although not for the faint of heart...this book was a quality read. Those believing it is porn or erotica need to check their definitions.
Book Description
No more excuses. "Let the lawn get shaggy and the paint peel from the walls," bestselling novelist Walter Mosley advises. Anyone can write a novel now, and in this essential book of tips, practical advice, and wisdom, Walter Mosley promises that the writer-in-waiting can finish it in one year. Intended as both inspiration and instruction, the book provides the tools to turn out a first draft painlessly and then revise it into something finer. Mosley tells how to:- Create a daily writing regimen to fit any writer's needs--and how to stick to it.- Determine the narrative voice that's right for every writer's style.- Get past those first challenging sentences and into the heart of a story.
Customer Reviews:
A Practical Guide to Writing Your First Novel.......2007-10-02
I have several unpublished novels languishing in my computer. I thought I would never after several rejections do anything with these novels. Then I read the Walter Mosley book and began to believe I could write a novel worthy of submitting to a publisher again. The thing I like about Mosley's style of writing and advice is that it is no nonsense, straightforward and practical. His advice is simple enough. Set aside at least an hour and a half a day and write. I understand that. But Mosley also gives you additional advice and tools of writing a novel. All this information is delivered under 200 pages. Thank you Mr. Mosley.
Little to Do About Much.......2007-09-09
Diana Revell, in her cogent, terse review took the words right out of my computer. I keep, on a shelf handy to my work station, the following books: Strunk & White's "Elements of Style," Stephen King's surprise help-mate, "On Writing," Anne Lamotte's "Bird by Bird," and Ms. Goldberg's "Writing Down the Bones."
Read those once and you'll be hooked, on both the books and on writing. If you read Mr. King's "second foreword" you will fully understand. Enough said.
Hard hitting hints from Walter Mosley.......2007-08-31
Thre's a bit of a back story here:I'm not a huge Oprah fan, but a relative passes along O the corporate house magazine in a stack of this 'n that every month or so. Mosley's essay in O-- an edited version of his long essay -- covers many facets we procrastinating authors continually need to address: work habits, research, basic elements of plot, moving along the action, and much more. Reminders regarding discipline,how to work out a mind set for achieving goals, and sensible suggestions regarding prioritizing the real lives we all lead resonated with me. So I bought the book on Amazon.com. Well, I suspect there're huge numbers of folks out there with the proverbial novel mouldering away in the top drawer, or nearly completed in the old computer; so what are we waiting for? I certainly don't want a head-stone with the words "She had a novel in her somewhere, but it never saw the light of day." Mosley's is a timely essay and in my opinion has elements of another favorite author of mine H.R.F. Keating whose Writing Crime Fiction should also be in every writer's book shelf. Mosley does a great job of "cheerleading" and This Year You Write Your Novel is without a doubt value for money.
Nothing new to see here.......2007-08-24
I had high hopes for this little book. The title and description make it sound like a motivational book that will teach a writer how to get a novel written in one year. But that's not what this book is. Halfway through it, I was still scratching my head about when the advice about how to write a novel in a year was going to begin. There was no system here, no breakdown of how to approach the time constraint. Honestly, all it said about how to organize your time is that you should spend about three months on the rough draft (600 to 1200 words a day) and nine months rewriting. What we're left with, then, is about 25,000 words of advice about how to write a novel, period.
It begins with the rule that you must write every day, which set me off wrong because I know plenty of successful writers who do not write every day. Nothing wrong with being a part-time writer, or even a full-time writer who takes two days a week off.
Then it moves into some well written, but unoriginal advice about choosing a narrative voice, showing and not telling, character development, plot, and so on. The disconcerting parts were the examples of good writing the author chose. It felt like I was reading entries to the Bulwer-Lytton contest for bad fiction. Example:
"Gazing into her walnut-colored eyes, he saw a speck that reminded him of an island he dreamed of as a boy, that place he'd always yearned to be..."
Seriously? In a book that's supposed to teach us how to write fiction, this is the best he could come up with?
No, it isn't, which is why he follows it with, "I know, maybe a little sappy, but you see where I'm going."
I see where he should be going, and that's right back to the computer to delete that lousy line and think of a better one.
I didn't come away from this book with anything that stuck. It's just yet another general book about how to write fiction, and I'm not sure why the author wrote it. All the other cool authors were doing it?
Go for more inspiration..........2007-08-22
If you write at all with just a bit of regularity, you may be happier with other instructional books. I am particularly fond of Stephen King's ON WRITING, Natalie Goldberg's WRITING DOWN THE BONES or WILD MIND, Anne Lamott's BIRD BY BIRD.
I found this "how-to" to be too simplistic and formulaic.
Amazon.com
Walter Mosley's Easy Rawlins has few illusions about the world--at least not about the world of a young black veteran in the late 1940s in Southern California. His stint in the Army didn't do anything to dissuade him from his belief that justice doesn't come cheap, especially for men like him. "I thought there might be some justice for a black man if he had money to grease it," Easy says. Fired from his job on the line at an aircraft plant, he's in danger of losing his home, symbol of his tenuous hold on middle class status. That's a good enough reason to accept a white man's offer to pay him for finding a beautiful, mysterious Frenchwoman named Daphne Monet, last seen in the company of a well-known gangster. Easy's search takes the reader to an L.A. few writers have shown us before--the mean streets of South Central, the after-hours joints in dirty basement clubs, the cheap hotels and furnished rooms, the places people go when they don't want to be found. Evocative of a past time, and told in a style that's reminiscent of Hammet and Chandler, yet uniquely his own, Mosley's depiction of an inherently decent man in a violent world of intrigue and corruption rang up big sales when it was published in 1990 (although the movie version, with Denzel Washington as Easy, never found the audience it deserved). The minor characters are deftly and brilliantly developed, especially Mouse, who saves Easy's life even as he draws him deeper into the mystery of Daphne Monet. Like many of Mosley's characters, Mouse makes a return appearance in the succeeding Easy Rawlins mysteries, such as A Red Death, Black Betty, and White Butterfly, every one of which is as good as Devil in a Blue Dress, his first. --Jane Adams
Book Description
Los Angeles, 1948: Easy Rawlins is a black war veteran just fired from his job at a defense plant. Easy is drinking in a friend's bar, wondering how he'll meet his mortgage, when a white man in a linen suit walks in, offering good money if Easy will simply locate Miss Daphne Money, a blonde beauty known to frequent black jazz clubs....
Customer Reviews:
Not Free SF Reader.......2007-09-04
Easy Rawlins is an ex-military man looking to get by after the war. He loses his job, and is looking to do something else to pay the bills. He falls into a private investigator type of job, being asked to track down a white woman that likes to hang out in black clubs.
It is all not quite as simple as that of course. Time for some music, violence, and the other usual bits and pieces.
Wonderfully Atmospheric Writing.......2007-06-01
DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS is the first in Walter Mosley's "Easy Rawlins" mysteries, featuring a black private detective in 1940s Los Angeles.
I enjoyed this novel quite a bit. DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS is incredibly well written for a first novel, and features some of the best dialogue I've ever read in a book of this type. Mosley does a great job of portraying the atmosphere of the 1940s, and how the races related to one another during that time period. In many ways, this is what great fiction is about -- transporting the reader to a completely different time and place. Mosley succeeds admirably in doing exactly this.
Unfortunately, Mosley stumbles a bit with his incredibly convoluted plot. DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS is a relatively short novel, but it's overstuffed with a series of minor characters who all have complex interrelationships with one another. Toward the end, when Mosley begins explaining these relationships, the plot gets incredibly confusing. As a result, I felt the ending lacked punch.
Still, this book is superb in many ways. I was enormously impressed with Mosley's skill with language, characterization and dialogue. I will definitely be purchasing some of his other books.
substantially overrated.......2007-03-11
'Devil in a Blue Dress' has a oodles of atmosphere and quirky characters but the plot is so convoluted that this reader was bored with it all half way through. Kudos to the author for capturing the feel of 1940s Los Angeles. But I think he went a bit haywire in trying to stitch together a story with too many odd characters and mini plot twists,
Bottom line: rather disappointing after a promising start. 'Devil in a Blue Dress' does not inspire me to read anything else by this author.
good story.......2006-11-10
Not sure why but I wasn't as taken with this novel as I have been with the other of his books. Don't get me wrong, this was a good book but it's wasn't up to his usual standards.
Distinctive Character.......2006-09-16
I read Devil in a Blue Dress in one sitting. Obviously, writer Jonathan Kellerman did too, because he later wrote, "I read Devil in a Blue Dress in one sitting and didn't want it to end. An astonishing first novel." Fortunately for Mosley fans, there are more Easy Rawlins mysteries. Devil in a Blue Dress remains my favorite. It's set in 1948 in Los Angeles. Easy Rawlins is a war veteran just fired from his job at a defense plant. (This is the role Denzel Washington plays in the movie.) Devil is much more than a hard-boiled mystery. The book left me wanting to read more about Easy Rawlins whereas many of the Hammett/Chandler/Cain novels are so formulaic that I have trouble remembering which ones I've read. Not a problem with Devil in a Blue Dress.
Average customer rating:
- Another Good Mosley Crime Novel
- Beware the Evil Eye!
- Paris Minton's Fear Makes Him Brave
- Courage is in the Eye of the Beholder
- Never Fear when Paris is on the Case
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Fear of the Dark (Fearless Jones Novel, No.3)
Walter Mosley
Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
Mosley, Walter
| African American
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General
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Hard-Boiled
| Mystery
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Suspense
| Thrillers
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Mosley, Walter
| ( M )
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General
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Look Inside Fiction Books
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Look Inside Mystery & Thriller Books
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Fearless Jones (Fearless Jones Novels)
ASIN: 0316734586 |
Book Description
Fearless Jones and Paris Minton, stars of the bestsellersFearless Jones and Fear Itself, return in a fast-paced thriller aboutfamily and revenge.For Paris Minton, a knock on his door is often the first sign of trouble.So when he finds his lowlife cousin, Ulysses S. Grant, or Useless, on theother side of his front door, Paris keeps it firmly closed. With family like Useless, who needs enemies? Yet trouble always finds anopen window, and when Useless's mother, Three Hearts, shows up to look forher son, Paris has no choice but to track down his wayward cousin. Turns out that Useless is involved in some high-stakes blackmailing. Now,he and a briefcase full of money and incriminating photos are missing, andParis is not the only one looking for him. Paris enlists the help of hisinvincible friend Fearless Jones, but mysterious women, desperate blackmailvictims, and cheating business partners are all they encounter--not tomention the dead bodies found along the way.With the sheer-nerve plotting and brilliant characterizations that havemade him one of the great stars of crime fiction, Fear of the Dark ismasterful Mosley.
Download Description
eBook Special Feature: Includes two original articles "The Writing of Fearless Jones" and "Black to the Future" both penned by Walter Mosley and a chapter excerpt of BAD BOY BRAWLY BROWN. ike most of us, Paris Minton is a man who would just as soon walk away from trouble as stand up to it. But in 1950s Los Angeles, sometimes trouble just comes and gets you. Bartholomew "BB" Perry is missing and wanted for murder - and the reputation of his very proper and influential aunt, Winifred L. Nice, is at stake. She uses her connections to get tough cop Jefferson T. Hill on the case, and when he goes missing too, Paris and Fearless Jones are double-crossed into taking a case that will turn out to be the most riveting ride of their lives. Paris and Fearless find themselves drawn deep into a world of conflict and corruption, rife with shady dealings and rogue lawmen - not to mention dangerous women. More corpses keep turning up, and, worst of all, Paris doubts that BB, the adulterous thief whose name he's trying to clear, is innocent after all. But if he can find his way out of trouble and escape with his life, Paris Minton just might become an accidental hero. Buzzing with energy, excitement, and suspense, this is yet another example of why the New York Times calls Walter Mosley "one of America's best mystery writers."
Customer Reviews:
Another Good Mosley Crime Novel.......2007-07-17
Walter Mosley, the master of mysteries and crime stories, has created another masterpiece with Fear of the Dark. This intriguing novel, set in circa 1950 Los Angeles, is the third in the Fearless Jones and Paris Minton series.
Paris, an unassuming used bookstore owner, unwittingly gets involved in a murder and extortion plot. Paris consults his friend Fearless, a strong, handsome and respected/dreaded, body guard. Together they wade through the morass created by an eclectic cast of characters; one of which is Paris' bungling cousin, Ulysses.
Mosley skillfully places his literary pearls and invites the reader to the scavenger hunt. Discovering who, what, where, when and why with Paris and Fearless was an exciting, comical, and surprising adventure. Mosley continues to capture and keep readers' attention through skillful story telling, vivid language, and short chapters. I had to force myself to stop reading so that I would not miss my stop on the train.
Laughing out loud, shaking my head in disbelief, and raising my eyebrows in astonishment were just a few of my emotional responses while reading this novel. Fear of the Dark is definitely a welcome addition to my library. I'm looking forward to reading Mr. Mosley's next release.
Beware the Evil Eye!.......2007-05-19
Fearless Jones and Paris Minton are back doing another off-the-books investigation that takes them down the dark alleys of 1956 Los Angeles. The city, especially the areas where Fearless and Paris live as well as the darkness their quest takes them through, is violent and filled with civil unrest.
In this book, Paris is haunted by family. His cousin Useless (Ulysses S. Grant IV) shows up at an inopportune moment and things go downhill quickly from there. Not long after Paris turns Useless from his door, Paris gets interrupted by his current girlfriend's current boyfriend. Paris flees for his life (his first rule of operation) and looks up Fearless for backup. But by the time they return to Paris's bookshop, there's a dead man lying there.
No sooner than Fearless and Parish have the body hidden away so no one will take the fall for murdering him than Paris's aunt Three Hearts arrives and begins threatening Paris. Since her evil eye is known to kill, Paris aims to please.
FEAR OF THE DARK felt a lot like the other two books, but that's good. THe investigation proceeds at a nice clip and the characters are always fun.
Mosley also writes the Easy Rawlins mysteries. Of late, those have been set in the early 1960s. Easy is a married man and at least twenty years older than Paris and Fearless. Paris narrates, and his voice is at once young and aged, savvy and naive.
Mosley's pacing in this book will keep readers flipping pages late into the the night. He seems more comfortable at this length than he has in previous novels. There's also more back story and a better view of California at the time in this one. His dialogue seems dead-on and so do his characters.
If you're new to Mosley's work, I'd recommend DEVIL IN A BLUE DRESS first. The FEAR series can be read pretty much in what order you find them.
Paris Minton's Fear Makes Him Brave.......2007-04-20
If you have not yet read Fearless Jones and Fear Itself (the first two books in the Fearless Jones series), I strongly urge you to do so before reading Fear of the Dark. Both of those books are better written and more entertaining than Fear of the Dark. Without the perspective that those books give you on Fearless Jones and Paris Minton, you'll like Fear of the Dark less than you might.
Paris Minton is a most unusual character for Walter Mosley. Paris is the owner of a used bookstore in Watts in the mid-1950s that he has to subsidize with a part-time job. Minton is a largely self-educated black man from Louisiana who came to California to find libraries that were open to all. His store's books are discards from local libraries. He has achieved a fragile kind of peaceful life, living and working in his bookstore (and reading when there are no customers, which is often). His head is full of classic literature (the oldest Greeks are his favorites) and carries a heroic perspective into every situation: They only trouble is, he's no hero. Paris is afraid of everything and almost everyone.
How does Paris cope? He has the equivalent of Dumbo's magic feather in the swashbuckling Fearless Jones, a modern archetype for the knight errant. Whenever trouble looms, Paris calls on Fearless for help. In many cases, Fearless's reputation is enough to solve the problem. But when rough stuff is needed, Fearless is your man. A World War II hero, Fearless met when Minton when Minton spontaneously bought Jones a drink during the post-war celebration. "He appreciated my generosity and gave me a lifetime of friendship for a single shot of scotch." As you can see, Mr. Mosley writes like an angel. Minton, the man of logic, reciprocates by helping Fearless solve problems where his bravery and reputation are not enough.
The two characters remind me of a Star Trek episode where a transporter malfunctions and Captain Kirk is divided into two people, one who is totally dominant and carnal and the other who is caring and weak. Paris and Fearless are similarly opposites, yet totally compatible as though they came from the same source. Obviously, Mr. Mosley is equally fascinated with how the opposite ways of pursuing the masculine life play out.
Since Paris operates in a tough area, he won't open his door for just anyone. He has an elaborate series of mirrors that allow him to see who wants in. When the mirrors show that his cousin Ulysses S. Grant IV (generally referred to as "Useless") is at the front door, Paris turns Useless away. Why? The last time he let Useless in, Paris almost ended in being framed for a robbery that Useless had done. No fool, Paris isn't about to repeat that mistake. "Useless was like monosodium glutamate for problems; he brought out the evil essence and magnified it." Useless leaves a cryptic message for his mother with Paris, "Tell Three Hearts that there's a man named Hector wrote my name on a black slip'a paper. Tell her that I tried to make it work with Angel, but I guess I was mudfoot just like she said."
Three weeks earlier, Paris had found his own way into trouble. He rescued a skinny young white woman named Jessa Brown who was trying to run a con on a small restaurant. The two became lovers . . . which becomes a problem when Jessa's ex-boyfriend Tiny (who is anything but) shows up at the bookstore while they two were engaged with one another on the floor.
Life gets more complicated from there. First, Tiny shows up dead in the bookstore. Then, Aunt Three Hearts shows up looking for Useless, and Paris cannot turn her down. Why? She has a reputation for putting the Evil Eye on those who don't do her wishes. Fearless Jones is tied up protecting Milo Sweet, the bail bondsman, from a dangerous felon, but Fearless does double duty in helping Paris as well.
It soon becomes clear that Useless has gotten himself into some very dangerous waters. Paris and Fearless set out to unravel the mystery and put the pieces back together again.
I found Fear of the Dark to be less interesting than the earlier two books in the series because the secondary characters and their motives are much less inspiring in Fear of the Dark. Why would anyone other than his mother care about Useless? As fine a woman as Three Hearts is, it's not as rewarding as it might be to read about her trying to save her son from himself. You know that Useless will just end up in some new trouble. There's also a lot of sexual innuendo in the book that didn't really advance the story or develop the characters beyond where they were at the end of Fear Itself.
But if you enjoy Paris Minton as a character, I think you'll feel rewarded for reading the book. The best part of the story is how Paris ends up taking on lots of danger so that he can avoid things that he's even more afraid of. Yes, a frightened man can be brave . . . especially when all is required is intellectual courage. Just don't have your highest expectations in place when you begin Fear of the Dark (a good double play on Paris's fear of dark places and society's fear of the African-American male).
Courage is in the Eye of the Beholder.......2007-04-19
Walter Mosley's Fear of the Dark is the third in a series in which we find Paris Minton, the struggling bookstore owner amidst the criminal element of South Central Los Angeles during the 1950s. Once again, trouble comes looking for Paris and although reluctant to plunge head first into a dangerous situation, Paris fails to realize his own courage as he goes about doing what must be done.
To shield his aunt Three Hearts from danger, Paris, and his companion/protector, Fearless Jones, set out to find Three Hearts' wayward son Ulysses S. Grant IV (a.k.a. Useless) and uncover a blackmail scheme that Useless is at the center of. Paris and Fearless quickly learn that they are not the only ones searching for Useless. The criminals seeking Useless do not hesitate to leave a trail of lifeless bodies and at anytime Paris and Fearless could end up amongst the dead.
Fear of the Dark is a light and crisp murder mystery. Mr. Mosley's vivid depiction of Paris' surroundings was amazing. I walked the streets with Paris and entered the same dark and dank places. Fearless was not Paris' only companion, I was there too. Mr. Mosley's ability to effortlessly spin creative and thought-provoking social commentary/messages intrigue me to no end.
Marian E.
APOOO BookClub
Never Fear when Paris is on the Case.......2007-03-15
This is the third in the series, and anyone who has read all three know that Fearless Jones is only a tangential character and that Paris Minton is the true center of these stories. This one begins with a knock on Paris' door by his cousin 'Useless' (Ulysses S Grant IV) who once again brings mayhem and havoc to Paris' life. Useless is one of those people who seem to always bring trouble to himself and everyone around him. On top of that is his mother Three-Hearts (which Mosley never explains) who is known to have the
'evil eye' and is not afraid to use it.
The story itself is interesting for the sociology of 1950s Los Angeles where white men can be blackmailed for their relationships with "negro" woman (of course they are also adulterers and embezzlers, but that's not really here or there). There is a great sequence where two cops (who have been hounding Paris) are cut down and put in their place by a white bank exec that they are trying to help. What is said and left unsaid in the dialogue says so much about 'Eisenhower' America and the relationships between the races at that time.
Even Mosley has problems with writing about African-Americans; Paris is constantly commenting on the shades of brown (chocolate, cafe au lait, high yellow, copper, etc)people are and can't decide what the characters should call each other or themselves (colored, negro, the "N" word are all thrown around). It's interesting to see how a "blackman" who lived through those times, looks back on a culture that is now lost to us all.
The story is interesting, the people too, and the plot moves along nice and steady without any surprises thrown in for shock value; all in all a good effort.
Book Description
Levels of 'employer brand awareness' are rising fast across Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific, as leading companies realise that skilled, motivated employees are as vital to their commercial success as profitable customers and apply the principles of branding to their own organization. Starting with a review of the pressures which have generated current interest in employer branding, this definitive book goes on to look at the historical roots of brand management and the practical steps necessary to achieve employer brand management success - including the business case, research, positioning, implementation, management and measurement. Case studies of big-name employer brand stories include Tesco, Wal-Mart, British Airways and Prêt a Manger.
Download Description
Levels of 'employer brand awareness' are rising fast across Europe, North America and Asia-Pacific, as leading companies realise that skilled, motivated employees are as vital to their commercial success as profitable customers and apply the principles of branding to their own organization. Starting with a review of the pressures which have generated current interest in employer branding, this definitive book goes on to look at the historical roots of brand management and the practical steps necessary to achieve employer brand management success - including the business case, research, positioning, implementation, management and measurement. Case studies of big-name employer brand stories include Tesco, Wal-Mart, British Airways and Prêt a Manger.
Book Description
In spite of remarkable differences, Eric and Tommy are as close as brothers. Eric, a Nordic Adonis, is graced by a seemingly endless supply of good fortune. Tommy is a lame black boy, cursed with health problems, yet he remains optimistic and strong. After tragedy rips their makeshift family apart, the lives of these boys diverge astonishingly: Eric, the golden youth, is given everything but trusts nothing; Tommy, motherless and impoverished, has nothing, but feels lucky every day of his life. In a riveting story of modern-day resilience and redemption, the two confront separate challenges, and when circumstances reunite them years later, they draw on their extraordinary natures to confront a common enemy and, ultimately, save their lives. Fortunate Son has the same brilliant observations of the hidden currents of modern life that won great praise for The Man in My Basement. It is a gripping literary novel that puts complex ideas and forces in play with irresistible drama.
Customer Reviews:
Like Easy More........2007-10-22
I love Walter Mosley. I think he's a gifted and brilliant writer. But for those coming to him for the first time, this wouldn't be the book I'd recommend.I remember reading early publisher reviews of this book and couldn't wait to get my hands on it. This modern day fable takes two boys: a charmed perfect blonde Adonis, and his African American 'brother' whose luck runs from bad to worse. Yet together their karma creates a perfect Ying and Yang that harmonizes both their lives. It's beautifully written, with Mosley writing the kind of searing and insightful passages I'm sure many writers can only aspire to. That said,for some reason I was left cold by the end, which is ironic because everything leading up to it said I should've been completely invested. If you've never read him before, I'd suggest cracking open the first Easy Rawlings mystery, 'Devil In A Blue Dress' which in my mind redefines the mystery genre.
Just recycled this awful book!.......2007-08-31
First ever Amazon review here, written to spare people the thoroughly unsatisfying experience of trying to finish this unbelievably bad novel. Despite the glowing praise which persuaded me to purchase the book, it's poorly written, completely flat and one-dimensional, alternately sickly sweet and falsely gritty. It gets one star for a well-written public relations campaign that claims "a modern-day parable" -- driving the eye-ball-rolling reader to persist to the end in a desperate (and unfulfilled) need to know why this book was ever allowed to be published in the first place. Some editor failed to do his/her job!!
The best yet.......2007-08-26
I have read all of Mosley's books. This one is by far the best. I read the whole book in one day and called my daughter for her to read it also. Such a sad but uplifting story about family. Poor Thomas, but Eric has his problems too. He was afraid to let go and love. Parents should consider the future of their childern's lifes. If Thomas's mother had married Eric's father, his(Thomas)fate would have been different. But in life, what doesn't kill or destory us will make us stronger. Book ended like there could be a part two, hope so.
My First, but not last, Mosley........2007-07-26
I listen to a lot of books as I commute from home to work and back again, and for some reason, I had missed Mr. Mosley's writings, but I won't make that mistake again. If Fortunate Son is any indication of Mr. Mosley's abilities as an author, then he is a great one. This book had me crying, laughing and at one point even wishing that poor Thomas would just go on and die. That poor, poor boy. I know it is fiction, but this book could be as real as the drive I make everyday. This life holds no promises and being able to deal with what it dishes out can be a testament to anyone's character, and what character Thomas had. Wonderful, wonderful book.
Mosley gets better and better.......2007-06-02
I have read Walter Mosley's books from the start, even before president Clinton named him as his favorite author. This book, Fortunate Son proves his staying power as an author. Each book Walter Mosley writes improves over the last. I recomend this book to the old readers of his works, and also to the new readers. You won't be let down.
Wonderful
Average customer rating:
- Great set-up, lackluster intrigue
- Is Murder and Mayhem Supposed to be this Funny
- dreadful
- Twice the Price
- A Little Piece Of Black Justice
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Fearless Jones (Fearless Jones Novel, No.1)
Walter Mosley
Manufacturer: Little, Brown and Company
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ASIN: 0316592382 |
Amazon.com
Penzler Pick, June 2001: Those of us who have been waiting for Walter Mosley to return to mystery writing--and there are many of us--have cause to rejoice. Not only has Mosley written a mystery, he is introducing a new character who could turn out to be as popular as Easy Rawlins.
Fearless Jones has a lot in common with Easy, but he also has some characteristics reminiscent of Socrates Fortlow, the "hero" of Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned. When the story begins, the reader is transported to the Los Angeles of the 1950s, a dangerous place and time for a black man. But Paris Minton seems to have beaten the odds. He owns a moderately successful and very satisfying business--a used book store. He spends the time he's not in the store scouring libraries for discarded books and selling them in just enough quantity to be independent and happy. Yes, he is visited on a regular basis by members of the LAPD who want him to prove to them that he did not steal the books, but that is a small price to pay for independence.
Minton's peaceful life is interrupted one day when a beautiful woman walks into his store and asks for the Reverend William Grove. In no time flat, Paris has been beaten into unconsciousness by a man following her and has been rewarded by the woman with sex. The lovely Elana Love is obviously trouble, but Paris jumps in feet first and, as a consequence, his store is burned to the ground. It is obviously time to call in Fearless Jones, a man well named. Jones is afraid of nothing, but there is a little matter to be taken care of before he can help. He's in jail and Paris must raise bail to get him out. Once he does that, the pair embark on a wild ride through Los Angeles on behalf of Elana Love. As always, Mosley depicts the hard-boiled L.A. in a powerful and distinctive way, and we can only hope that this is the first of a series. --Otto Penzler
Book Description
Penzler Pick, June 2001: Those of us who have been waiting for Walter Mosley to return to mystery writing--and there are many of us--have cause to rejoice. Not only has Mosley written a mystery, he is introducing a new character who could turn out to be as popular as Easy Rawlins.Fearless Jones has a lot in common with Easy, but he also has some characteristics reminiscent of Socrates Fortlow, the "hero" of Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned. When the story begins, the reader is transported to the Los Angeles of the 1950s, a dangerous place and time for a black man. But Paris Minton seems to have beaten the odds. He owns a moderately successful and very satisfying business--a used book store. He spends the time he's not in the store scouring libraries for discarded books and selling them in just enough quantity to be independent and happy. Yes, he is visited on a regular basis by members of the LAPD who want him to prove to them that he did not steal the books, but that is a small price to pay for independence.Minton's peaceful life is interrupted one day when a beautiful woman walks into his store and asks for the Reverend William Grove. In no time flat, Paris has been beaten into unconsciousness by a man following her and has been rewarded by the woman with sex. The lovely Elana Love is obviously trouble, but Paris jumps in feet first and, as a consequence, his store is burned to the ground. It is obviously time to call in Fearless Jones, a man well named. Jones is afraid of nothing, but there is a little matter to be taken care of before he can help. He's in jail and Paris must raise bail to get him out. Once he does that, the pair embark on a wild ride through Los Angeles on behalf of Elana Love. As always, Mosley depicts the hard-boiled L.A. in a powerful and distinctive way, and we can only hope that this is the first of a series. --Otto Penzler
Download Description
Paris Minton is minding his own business--a small used bookstore of which he is the proud proprietor--when a beautiful woman named Elana Love walks in and asks a few questions. Within the next twenty-four hours, Paris has been beaten up, made love to, shot at, and robbed, and his bookstore has been burned to the ground. He's in so much trouble he has no choice but to get his friend Fearless Jones out of jail to help. Fearless Jones is an army veteran, a man who is proud of his accomplishments during World War II, and refuses to step into the background now that the war is over. Violence dogs Fearless's every step, and Paris has tried to keep his distance. But there's no friend like the one you need. The two set out to find the elusive Elana Love, and every step leads them deeper into a bewildering vortex of money and betrayal. Their questions bring out a ruthless and racist cop, a gang of vicious ex-cons, and an elderly Jewish woman who is as determined to help the two friends as others are to harm them. These two Black men in 1950s Los Angeles have few rights, little money, and no recourse under attack. But they have their friends, their wits, and their knowledge of the way the world really works to help them prevail.
Written with the blazing pace of noir classics like The Maltese Falcon, Fearless Jones also possesses the humor and original insights into American places and characters that have made Walter Mosley one of the most admired writers of our time.
Customer Reviews:
Great set-up, lackluster intrigue.......2006-06-28
The premise for Walter Mosley's "Fearless Jones" is certainly a doozy. After reading the back cover I was sucked right in and eagerly began to read. You see, Paris Minton is minding his own business reading in his used book store when the beautiful and mysterious Elana Love (a classic femme fatale) walks in and changes everything. Within minutes of her arrival Paris has been brutally beaten by a thug who shows up looking for her, and in the ensuing chaos he is chased, shot at, seduced by Ms. Love, and loses his beloved store to arson. When Elana makes off with his money and his car, Paris becomes determined to find out what she was mixed up in and to exact revenge. To do this he must first bail his best buddy, Fearless Jones, out of jail to make use of his talents in such matters.
Great set-up, right? Unfortunately the execution is quite lacking, and ironically I thought that the plot took its big dive the moment Fearless himself showed up. So much importance is placed on Fearless' charisma and nobility to further the plot, but he just isn't as magnetic as Mosley seems to think he is. His partnership with Paris doesn't help matters much because the two of them stall the novel's action completely at alternating points, going about their investigation with all of the urgency of two men running errands. The two of them keep taking time outs to do ... not much, actually. Fearless hooks up with an old girlfriend, Paris seemingly falls for a damaged waitress (although ultimately it is hard to believe that he really feels anything for her at all), Fearless takes on a new pet in a dog that the two encounter, and more, but none of it has anything to do with the plot. One wishes that Mosley had streamlined these elements and kept better control of the plot -- which gets way out of hand by the end. By the time Nazi war criminals and the Israeli government get involved you'll have a headache and wish that Mosley had simply stuck to the extortion, corrupt police, and creepy church thugs that he had started the book out with. I had never read a book by Mosley before, and perhaps I should have stuck with one of the Easy Rawlins series for a first experience. I think that I still will give one a try someday -- but not until I've had enough time to get rid of the bad taste in my mouth that "Fearless Jones" has left me with.
Is Murder and Mayhem Supposed to be this Funny.......2006-06-17
This is my introduction to Walter Mosley, (whose Easy Rawlins is a favorite of my daughter) and I am very impressed by his manner of writing people who seem real, but are in totally bizarre situations. Mosley does a great job in evoking 1950s LA at a time when the place of anyone who wasn't a WASP, was in their place. (As an aside, Mosley only makes two mistakes in his timeline...the proper name for African-Americans at this time was colored, I don't think even blacks calls themselves Blacks; and the use of the word pig to designate a cop didn't appear until the late sixties, at this time blacks called cops Ofays.)
Now this is really not a story about Fearless (who real name is Tristan), but about his friend Paris. Paris wants nothing more than to run his used book store. But like most people in a noir book, what he wants and what he gets are two totally different things. The story begins when he gets involved with a good looking woman who acts like a damsel-in-distress, but she's more like a black widow (no pun intended). Gee, and she has a big bad boyfriend named Leon, who likes to beat up people, especially those that mess with his girlfriend.
Summary of the story is that he and his friend Milo (an ex-lawyer) get Fearless out of jail, they then run into arson for hire, murder for hire, murder for money, ex-Nazi war criminals, Israeli spies, illegal war bootie, crooked religious confidence men, and some other stuff. In the end, everything comes out alright (except of course for the dead people) and Paris gets another store.
You know Paris, I think this is the beginning of a wonderful series. Can't wait for the next installment.
dreadful.......2005-02-06
Something about this book just didn't click for me. I love mysteries, but I just never appreciated what was going on between Leon, Elana, the Reverend Grove, Sol, the nazis, and the Israeli spies. Too many characters had odd parts that complicated the action. This was just a very disjointed, rambling story.
Twice the Price.......2004-02-19
I'm reviewing the price not the book!
I have not read this book but it looks very good. I was hoping to get it on CD for those long drives to work but Whoa! Have you seen the price? $56 for an unabridged CD of a book that's only 300+ pages? In contrast, its' sequel is 400+ pages and the unabridged CD only costs $18! Is this a typo Amazon? or has the publisher gone mad?
A Little Piece Of Black Justice.......2003-08-19
this novel closely parallels "devil in a blue dress," switching the roles a bit. instead of easy rollins out finding justice with his tough little pal mouse, it's little pal paris minton with his tough buddy fearless jones out trying to find the same. poor paris gets roped into some bad luck when a misunderstanding gets his bookstore burned down in 1950's california. basically, paris feels cheated, no livlihood and no home as he lived in his store, and refuses to go out like a sucker. he gets his tough best friend fearless jones to help him find the villians that are trying to keep him down and they fully expect to get what they have coming to them.
this is no ordinary day in a black man's life, but it is written as such. the layman reading this piece might even feel like black men had to deal with garbage like this every day. though that was not the case, it wasn't far from it let me tell you. reading this gives a lot of insight to those not in the know and moseley is one of those rare writers who chooses to educate us while entertaining us. the lingo is indicative of the era and the characters are nicely fleshed out. ironically enough, fearless jones was my least favorite, probably because it wasn't really about him to begin with. he plays out like this hardcase with a heart of gold, brandishing his own private view of right and wrong.
paris is the real deal here. a mealy-mouthed sort with no real manly confidence, but he's not about to take his new misgiving lying down. he's no tough guy so he gets his tough guy friend to help. but by the end of the story, he changes nicely for the better and it was nice to see the little guy get some guts. there is also a lot in there about a strange relationship the guys strike up with an older jewish couple, which i found pretty charming in the face of the rampant bigotry of the time.
just like mosely to put together an intriguing whodunnit filled with pitfalls and plot switches at every turn. nice read here for when there's just nothing on the tube.
Book Description
Los Angeles, 1961. Kennedy is in the White House and King is marching down South. It's a new day for many blacks in America - but not for Easy Rawlins.Easy's small real estate empire is in trouble and he is facing bankruptcy when Saul Lynx, an oily white private eye, offers him $200 to track down on Elizabeth Eady, a.k.a. "Black Betty." The sensuous Betty was a housekeeper for an immensely wealthy Beverly Hills family - but now has mysteriously disappeared.Easy takes the job, but he also has to deal with his murderous sidekick Mouse, who's just been released from Chino prison. Mouse was sent up for manslaughter, and he wants Easy to help him find the ones who gave him up to the police.Finding Betty seems a simple enough task, but nothing about this woman is as simple as it appears to be. Easy soon finds out her trail is paved with blood - and he might be the next victim of her deadly charms.
Customer Reviews:
Mosley is a literary treasure. This could be his finest........2005-10-16
Mosley's Easy Rawlins series of crime novels are collectively a great read. Novel by novel Mosley takes us from the optimistic, sunny post-war LA toward a bleaker, jaded experience - so by the time we get to Black Betty in the early 1960s, Rawlins has worked for 15 hard year trying to better his family, and yet still he keeps getting dragged back into his past - this time to earn a couple of hundred dollars to find the whereabouts of a housemaid whom he once knew as Black Betty.
This time the tension is ratcheted up a notch because of the risk to Rawlins' family of adopted kids, and because of the return of his violent friend Mouse, just out of jail and eager to blow the heads off the people who put him there.
But where Mosley scores is in his faithful recall of the events of the early 1960s - there is mounting Black Anger, the gap between the haves and have-nots is widening and the news bulletins feature a fiery Martin Luther King and...later in the novel, the death of JFK. I've seen many noverls where history is wheeled in to lend gravitas to the narrative, but nobody does it better than Mosley. Seen from the tired, indignant viewpoint of Ezekiel Rawlins, our modern history weighs heavily. I loved this novel and this next summer I'm going to re-read the Rawlins series once more. Five stars? Not enough. Mosley is a literary treasure and Black Betty rates as one of his finest.
Dead Heat.......2003-05-25
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.
A Book Drenched In History.......2003-01-10
Walter Mosley doesn't just write mysteries. He creates a historical landscape peopled with vibrant and authentic characters who like most of us are flawed and lacking in some way. "Black Betty" is Mosley at his best. The mystery is enthralling and many layered, the atmosphere electric, and the villains exquisitely evil.
The time is 1961 the era of Martin Luther King, John Kennedy, and the beginning of The Civil rights movement. Easy Rawlings is raising two adopted children on his own, and his secret real-estate empire is sinking. He has no idea how to solve his financial problems until a sleazy private eye Saul Lynx approaches him with a job. Lynx offers Easy $200 to track down a former acquaintance of his, Elizabeth Eady, aka Black Betty. Betty a beautiful and sensual woman has vanished from her wealthy employer's home in Beverly Hills.
Easy's search for Betty will uncover a trail of chaos and murder. To make matters worse, Easy's psychopathic best friend Mouse is also out of prison determined to find and execute the man who betrayed him. However, this book is much more than a murder mystery; it is a journey into the heart of racial bigotry and the paradox that is the human race. The language is vibrant and moving:
On the bus there were mainly old people and young mothers and teenagers coming in late to school. Most of them were black people. Dark-skinned with generous features. Women with eyes so deep that most men can never know them. Women like Betty who'd lost too much to be silly or kind. And there were the children, like Spider and Terry T once were, with futures so bleak it could make you cry just to hear them laugh. Because behind the music of their laughing you knew there was the rattle of chains. Chains we wore for no crime; chains we wore for so long that they melded with our bones. We all carry them but nobody can see it-not even most of us. All the way home I thought about freedom coming for us at last. But what about all those centuries in chains? Where do they go when you get free?
This is not merely a fast paced and gripping mystery but a powerful story of one of the saddest aspects of American life. Mosley does not preach nor condemn, he merely presents us with a historically accurate account of an era in which this mystery story unfolds. I highly recommend this story.
The finest of the Easy Rawlins stories?.......2002-04-10
I don't generally like crime fiction. There's a sentence to alienate most of the people reading this review! However for some writers - the great ones - the genre they write in is irrelevent. It cannot be denied that Mosley is a great writer, who has shown equal facility in tough but politically and socially literate crime writing and also in witty and wise post-modern science-fiction.
Black Betty is a fine demonstration of his craft. His particular skill is in weaving the world into his tales. The mystery is well-constructed and satisfyingly tangled, featuring multiple murders, corruption and racial and class divisions. However the central plot is framed both by the atmosphere of early 1960s America with the rise of the civil rights movement confronting old prejudices, and by the dense web of family and social life within the families of ordinary, mainly (but not entirely) black, working class Americans.
In theory Easy Rawlins' role in the investigations in which he is involved is limited to where white men fear to tread - the black community. However the networks of corruption and deceit he uncovers inevitably take him outside this world, in this case into the bizarre and emtionally-stunted world of white land-owners and their complicated relationships with their black and latino servants, as well as a corrupt and racist police force and legal system.
Easy is also personally involved - Elizabeth Eady AKA Black Betty - the woman whose disappearance he is hired to investigate was a teenage crush of his, a woman who inspires obsession in many, which turns out to be her tragedy. At the same time, Easy has to contend with several other difficulties: the release of his psychotic - but often useful - friend, Mouse, from prison, bristling with anger and the need to revenge himself on the man who sent him down; the ongoing silence of his eldest adopted child Jesus, who has chosen not to speak as a result of the trauma and abuse from which Easy rescued him; the suspicious collapse of the real estate businesses in which he has invested his occasional earnings; and various other ongoing personal and social difficulties. Easy Rawlins has a well described and believable, if unconventional, family and a life beyond the crimes he is occasionally employed to solve. He is a fascinating character who has grown with successive novels; full of desire and anger but compassionate, wise and often painfully self-aware.
I would rate Black Betty as the best of the Easy Rawlins tales. What is particularly great about it is Easy's story of personal survival and compromise in an unfair world where a black man cannot sit back and enjoy what he has without someone trying to destroy it. Easy does get to the bottom of things, but it is at immense cost to all those involved including himself, and in the case of Mouse - well, as those who know the character will be aware that there is very little in the world that will stop him doing what he has set his mind on.
This is ultimately a tale cut about with sadness and rage, and a mighty fine and and jolting read it is too.
A Multi-layered Mystery.......2000-10-24
After reading (or rereading) many of the classic detective novels in the past few months, I have come to two conclusions. First, I read way too many detective novels. Secondly (and more importantly), in all truly great hardboiled detective stories, the actual mystery is secondary. Granted, a labyrinth plot that keeps one guessing is always a plus. But all the true greats of crime fiction (Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, James Ellroy et al.) have realized early one what has taken me some time to understand: It is not the plot, it is the world the story occurs in that is important. The finest mystery plot in the world means nothing if the reader does not believe the world presented actually exists, at least on the page.
I state this merely as a preamble to my main topic, the novel BLACK BETTY, by Walter Mosley. It is a good mystery. It has intrigue, deception, betrayal, racism, and murder. It is complex enough to demand a second visit. But, more important than the plot, Mosley has created the world of 1950's Los Angeles in such vivid and believable detail that you'd read the novel even if it were a mere travelogue.
BLACK BETTY marks the fourth appearance of Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins, an unwilling investigator who is more concerned with providing his children with a good home than he is with solving a case. It is to this end that he accepts an offer of two hundred dollars to track down Elizabeth Eady, a sultress from his past who has gone missing. As Easy once again delves into the lives of others, he visits worlds he wishes to escape from, and worlds he wishes to join. He also realizes that there is no real difference between them.
Easy ranks up with Phillip Marlowe and Sam Spade as one of the finest literary detectives. He is tough, resourceful, intelligent, and oddly eloquent. It's also good to see the return of Mouse, Easy's childhood friend/nightmare. Mouse is a killer, and is all the more terrifying for his believability. Like all of Mosley's characters, you get the impression that they have lives beyond the page, that they do not exist merely as foils for Easy.
But that is true of Easy's entire world. In a few simple, elegent sentences, Mosley can describe a character more vividly than most authors can do with pages of exposition. Their manners of speech, their beliefs, their dreams. Mosley can size up an individual like almost no one else can. Even minor characters, such as Ortiz and Jackson Blue, linger in the memory far longer than many lead characters of other novels.
Mosley's Easy stories, despite their being lumped into the sometimes simpleminded detective genre, are always more than they appear. Mosley embues his writings with a palpable sense of rage. The common, almost routine racism that Easy encounters every day gives the stories a compelling weight that his literary predecessor's sometimes lacked. It is a viewpoint that could overwhelm the story, but Mosley is far too skilled to let it happen. Even as Easy muses about Martin Luther King and "the young Irish president", he understands the difference between political rhetoric and day-to-day reality. Easy's world may be fictional on the surface, but it exists, and continues to exist all around us.
BLACK BETTY is a tremendous detective novel that works on many levels. It is a fine example of the detective genre. It is a perfectly realized world unto itself. It is an indictment of how little we have advanced in the past fifty years.
Book Description
Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, a series editor reads pieces from hundreds of periodicals, then selects between fifty and a hundred outstanding works. That selection is pared down to twenty or so very best pieces by a guest editor who is widely recognized as a leading writer in his or her field. This unique system has helped make the Best American series the most respected -- and most popular -- of its kind. Lending a fresh perspective to a perennial favorite, Walter Mosley has chosen unforgettable short stories by both renowned writers and exciting newcomers. The Best American Short Stories 2003 features poignant tales that explore the nuances of family life and love, birth and death. Here are stories that will, as Mosley writes in his introduction, "live with the reader long after the words have been translated into ideas and dreams. That's because a good short story crosses the borders of our nations and our prejudices and our beliefs." Dorothy Allison Edwidge Danticat E. L. Doctorow Louise Erdrich Adam Haslett ZZ Packer Mona Simpson Mary Yukari Waters
Customer Reviews:
Not that great..........2005-12-06
What has happened to literature? These stories are poorly written in my opinion. If these are the best, I'd hate to see the worst American short stories. Take "Moriya", a piece of trash written by Dean Paschal included in this collection for example. Hey Dean: just because no one has written a story about an adolescent "mecahnical minded" boy fantasizing, masturbating, and having sex with a doll doesn't make your story great literature. I've given up one American writing for the present...
A selection from MFA Land.......2005-01-31
Sigh. Not that most of these stories are actually bad but they do suffer from what an earlier reviewer called a "constricted cautiousness". Besides, maybe I've read too many of these types of pieces already but wow - are some of the themes here familiar. For example, being working-class in America (or a working class immigrant) really pounds rocks. And hey - there sure is a lot of quiet desperation in them there suburbs. Yawn yawn yawn.
Just very good literature.......2004-10-15
This delicious short stories collection has taken me a long time to read. Not because the stories were boring or bad but since every story was so condensed, rich and powerful I could not easily part from a certain state of mind and place and move on the next story.
I try to think what are the similar features of these 2003 stories and what can they say about our time...these are very different subjects, characters and places but maybe I could say that the stories discuss a self growth of some sort. Be it a teenager boy having his first sexual encounter with a demonically bewitching mechanically doll or a person reflecting how his life has developed from a certain event as a Chinese delivery boy in the streets of New York -- but off course I guess this is a too easy generalization that can be said of any story whatsoever.
"Why the sky turns red when the sun goes down" by Ryan Harty is a good example of the stories ability to emotionally stir you up and touch an issue very relevant for parents everywhere, maybe this is what made this story so special for me. The story starts out as a very ordinary family crisis tale. The father learns that something happened to his boy and goes out to fetch him. The turning point comes when the boy is seen lying down with his hand thrown a few yards away from his body. Slowly you realize that this is a mechanical child and prepare yourself for some science fiction descriptions, which do not arrive. Apart from the very central "mechanical boy" fact this is a very real story in all its levels, with nothing "modern" or alienated about it. By the end of the story I remained with the strong feeling that mechanical or not, the parents are facing the same questions parents everywhere are asking themselves and mainly "are we doing the right thing". How do we keep our children and families safe? What are the lies we tell our children and ourselves in order to keep us safe? "Why the sky turns red..." has the heavy atmosphere that is very characteristic of many of the other stories in this collection. Something hard and heavy is hanging above and the characters are having a hard time trying to push it away, like a certain pain that has become a part of your life. The story "The Bees" suffers (or rather enjoys?) the same heavy atmosphere, only here this is not something between husband and wife but between a man and himself. The man is in turmoil because of something in the past that clouds his present. When the punishment arrives, you accept it as the anticipation and tension has been built up all along.
I did not read the previous Best American Short stories but feel as if Walter Mosely has done an incredible job. Or maybe these fine authors have made his job easier. This is a masterpiece collection of stories.
"Ghost Knife", "Moriya", " Baby Wilson", "Devotion" and "Future Emergencies" are some of my favorite stories in this collection. Off course I can relate easily to stories which discuss women, parents or people who are in a position similar to mine, but the greatness of these stories is that you can feel the pain, helplessness and anger of people in totally different surroundings and situations, such as immigrants recalling something in their past or people from another culture all together (the stories "Night Talkers" or "Marie-Ange's Ginen" which are set in Haiti for example).
This is truly good literature and my only regret is that I cannot discuss these stories in a literature class so I can understand all the further layers.
Do not miss the last few pages of the book where every writer gives a few lines about his story and how it came through.
if you only read one story, read "The Bees".......2004-06-03
Having never read one of the "Best American Short Stories" collections, I have no way to judge this latest edition to past efforts. The only thing I can speak to is how I felt about the stories contained in this collection and how good I think they are. There are some very fine stories in this collection with one in particular that I just loved.
Louise Erdrich has long been my favorite novelist, but I was still nervous about what she would make from the short story format. "Shamengwa" is a moving story which revolves around a violin and the effect it has had, in various ways, on the lives of several members of a community. Anthony Doerr has one of the better stories in the collection, "The Shell Collector". With such a deceptively simple title, one would not expect such raw power and an interesting story about a man who lives alone but has gained worldwide attention because of the poison in one particular kind of shell. Another standout is Ryan Harty's "Why the Sky Turns Red when the Sun Goes Down", a story of a family with a robotic son (literally, the boy is a robot, or, perhaps an android). This is a touching story.
The best story in the collection, and then one that blew me away is Dan Chaon's "The Bees". This one was completely unexpected and shocking. While this one would probably fall into the category of "horror", don't let that mislead you. This one starts out easy, just identifying a man and his family and we start to learn about his past. He wasn't a good man during his first marriage and he deeply regrets it. But as the story continues and we get snippets of revelation, the tension grows and so does this air of creepiness that I got while I was reading it. The tension does not let up until the end of the story, but rather it keeps building because we don't quite know what is going on and this is not what you would assume a typical "horror" story would be. It is a psychological horror and it is just gripping.
This is a very fine collection, but "The Bees" was the one story that truly stood out for me and it continues to be memorable.
-Joe Sherry
disappointing.......2004-05-09
I so look forward to these annual volumes of BEST short stories. These collections normally have such a variety of subject and style. Not this volume. The subject of nearly every story was the alienation of immigrants in America. For the first time ever, I didn't finish reading the collection. I mean, I love popcorn, but want variety!
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