Walter Mosley at the 2007 Brooklyn Book Festival. The photographer dedicates this photograph to Debbie Ramos, sister of Jeffpw. (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
Easy Rawlins Mysteries
By Walter Mosley
It is soooo easy to spend time with Easy Rawlins... and, thank goodness, Mosley resurrected him in his latest out on the 14th! There was something very beautiful about the writing in this book...Mosley knew we all wanted more of Easy and it seemed that every single word was chosen, reconsidered, and finalized before he moved on... And you know what I enjoyed most in his writing? His character descriptions! Every time he introduced a new character, I could imagine what he or she looked like...and, no, he rarely used the word black, or Negro...and never, of course, African-American because that phrase wasn't around in the 60s when Easy was 47...
The other thing I found I was doing while I spent time with Easy was thinking of my dear friend, Spencer Turnage, who we lost May 10th of last year. Most of the time, I pictured Spence as Easy...and wishing that Spencer had had some of the gator blood himself! Spencer was a beautiful poet who shared his words with all of us, especially at Gather.com. He would always be talking about his neighbors, his community, and about what he was doing to be involved with them... And that's just the way Easy is. Of course, I don't think Spencer got into the criminal issues like Easy did...but I do know that it was never about being paid...it was about helping his friends and maybe some day they would help him...So, I'm taking his opportunity to share that all of your friends miss you Spencer... And it was lovely to remember you as Easy visited me...
..."All I do know is that I walked a block and a half today and nearly collapsed. And here I got miles up ahead of me."
"And that's why you come here?"
"You gave Mouse this little vial for hangovers," I said.
"Hangovah ain't like dyin'," she replied. "That's just a little pick-me-up after a night out."
"You got somethin' stronger?" I asked.
"There's health in your body, sugah, and death in your soul. I can give ya somethin' help to see you through this thing, but I can't tell whether you gonna come back alive or not."
"All I know is if I stop right now I will be dead in a week. I know it."
"Jo's hard black face cracked into a girlish grin.
"I knew when you was just a teenager that you were gonna be one helluva man, Mr. Rawlins. You look at the world and see what's there. You know there ain's one person outta three hundred could lay claim to half'a that."
"Here we go," she said...I all this here Gator's Blood," Jo said as she regained her seat. "That there is some powerful juju. You take yourself a nap and then if you feelin' weak you drink down one bottle. After that you'll be good to go for whatever time your condition will allow...
"I took one of the bottles, teased out the cork plug, and drank the contents, five or six ounces, in one draft. The concoction tasted like equal parts hard cider and swamp mud...I broke out into a sweat and stood up because I had to...
~~~
Well, he finally found Little Green who was being tortured by some druggies... Seemed there had been some money stolen and they wanted it... Easy gets Evander away and takes him home to heal and maybe find out what was going on. Finally, Evander remembers and Easy took the money to the only man he'd trust with it--because he already was so rich that he'd laugh at the small amount...
At the same time, another friend and the rich man asked for his help! Blackmail and insider crime was the main dish to eat then...
You can bet that Gator's Blood was keeping him going or he'd never be done!
The thing about Easy though was that just handling the specific request was not what Easy's all about... He's got to deal with and clean up every single issue that surrounds what has happened...
But then he made contact with his former lover...the one who'd broke up with him right before Easy went over that hill...
I loved this book!
"I wore death on my shoulders like a superhero's cape, but that didn't matter. I was going to fight, the good fight and win or lose, I'd be counted as a man who struggled against his own fate..."
I've shared the good parts of this novel as part of my review. But there's so much more that could be spotlighted. The 60s included the Watts Riots, Hippie Love, sex and drugs...and the hate of whites toward blacks...All that is there and more...because that all happened and needs to be shared.
But Walter Mosley spreads his opinion through the choice of his words to talk of his characters that happen to be a certain color like "ochre" --LOL, I'm spotlighting that one because it was the only one I looked up to understand the particular coloring... or the Frenchman who was olive skinned with dark, dark brown eyes, almost black. The little mustache he'd sported... or this young man with almost alabaster white skin, coarse red hair and pale blue eyes, who I promptly hated for his officiousness... Why, I wondered, don't other writers describe their characters so that readers could gain such a perfect image? In any event, I loved this latest novel by prolific author Walter Mosley. If you lived during the 60s, consider it a must read! And, somebody get a copy to Denzel Washington because we need a new Easy Rawlins movie from this one!
GABixlerReviews
Now Here's The First Vote to Have Little Green made into a movie with Denzel once again playing EASY!
Movie Trailer...
Definitely made me want to read!
ReplyDeleteThanks for your feedback, Linda...I think any writer could spend time with Mosley and learn about character description...
ReplyDeleteBest,
Glenda