About
Reviews
Search
Submit
Home

Mystery Books for Sale

[ Home ]
[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]


  

BAD BOY BRAWLY BROWN
by Walter Mosley
Little, Brown & Company, July 2002
311 pages
$24.95
ISBN: 0316073016


Buy in the UK | Buy in Canada

Walter Mosley is one of the best at "showing, not telling" and giving the reader a sense of time and place. His Easy Rawlins novels, that began in post-war L.A. and have moved to the uneasy times of growing Black consciousness movements bring you into a world so vivid and so real that you just get it.

In this story, Rawlins seems lost; his best friend, the volatile, vindictive, cool Mouse is dead and without him, Easy has lost a piece of himself. While I never will understand the bond these two men had, even after reading every book in this series, I have to accept that Mouse, whom most men feared, and for good reason, was so important to Easy that he can't accept his death.

Easy, who has a house, kids, a steady woman and a legit job, is still uncomfortable in that role. When he gets a request for help from an old friend, it pleases him, although he tries not to let on; he seems to know he should be content, but he's not. He still relishes living on the edge, helping people out, working against the racism of the times he lives in.

John has called Easy because his girlfriend, Alva Torres, has a problem. Alva doesn't like Easy very much, but he can do things and go places, he knows people other do not know. Alva's son Brawly has disappeared, and Alva's sure he's in trouble. He's 23, but easily led, they tell Rawlins. He's hanging out with "The Urban Revolutionary Party" and they want Easy to get the young man away from this group of black men and women who are interested both in civil rights and maybe in guns and violence. In very scary times, with "red squads" and cops all over, crushing dissent and spying on any group that threatened the status quo, it almost doesn't matter with this group, also calling itself "The First Men" is after. They are trouble, and they are in trouble. Mosley's ability, again, to show not tell the conflicts within the group, within the black community about issues of power and respect, separatism and working with or for the white man is skillful and he paints this backdrop with ease.

While Easy's job at the school is secure, this is what he still lives for; helping folks out when they're in a jam. And he's learned how to do it over the years better than anyone. " I can tell you when a man's about to go crazy or when a thug's really a coward or blowhard. I can glance around a room and tell you if you have to worry about gettin' robbed. All that I get from bein' poor and black in this country you so proud'a savin' from the Koreans and Vietnamese. Where I come from they don't have dark-skinned private detectives. If a man needs a helpin' hand, he goes to someone who does it on the side. I'm that manŠWhat I do I do because it's a part of me. I studied in the streets and back alleys. What I know most cops would give their eyeteeth to understand."

Easy's own son, Jesus, is bored with school and wants out. Easy's not the best at explaining things, but he wants his kids to have the best lives they can and how he works things out with Jesus is a very good story on the side. 

There is violence, yes, and racism in this story, but like all of Mosley's work, his characters deal with the realities of their world. Easy isn't perfect, he's not always a great role model, but he is a damn good man and one to always have on your side. He will always be divided between the worlds he inhabits, black and white. And he understands both better than almost anyone. --

http://www.drizzle.com/~roscoe - Stu & Andi's "The Roscoe Page" http://www.drizzle.com/~roscoe/tshirts.html - Original cartoon silk-screened t-shirts - some Sherlockian, Wodehousian & others still available. Check out the new 'Roscoe Store' pages at CafePress! We now have an assortment of imprinted items with original Stu Shiffman art: http://www.cafeshops.com/cp/store.aspx?s=roscoestore - "The Game's Afoot!" Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson http://www.cafeshops.com/cp/store.aspx?s=roscoestore2 - "Nero Woof," a Funny Animal version of Rex Stout's Nero Wolfe. "Rex Trout takes notes on Nero Woof". http://www.cafeshops.com/cp/store.aspx?s=Roscoestore3 - "I Love a History Mystery!" Ancient Roman detective. http://www.cafeshops.com/cp/store.aspx?s=Roscoestore4 - "I Love a History Mystery!" Medieval mysteries.

Reviewed by Andi Shechter, November 2002

This book has more than one review. Click here to show all.

[ Top ]


QUICK SEARCH:

 

Contact: Yvonne Klein (ymk@reviewingtheevidence.com)


[ About | Reviews | Search | Submit ]
[ Home ]