OK, initial disclaimer; I'm a 63 year old White dude. Several years ago I saw the movie, "Devil in a Blue Dress," with Denzel Washington, a sort of mystery with a background of race relations and the Black experience during the late 40's I believe, with the character of Easy Rawlins introduced. GREAT, I heartily recommend it! Plan to read the book too. Since then I have read alother of Mr. Mosley's, "The Man in My Basement," a weird, more contemporary look at white guilt, but I digress. "Bad Boy Brawley Brown" is another Easy Rawlins mystery, this time set in 1964 L.A., again with the Black experience around the time of the beginning of the Civil Rights movement. Walter Mosley weaves a fun, easy-to-read yarn involving the son of a friend, a spinoff of the Black Panthers and people who aren't really who they say they are. In the midst of all that are descriptions and hints of what it was like to be Black in 1964, sort of summed up in this passage regarding another friend who owns a restaurant: "In his restaurant he was the king. But on the street he was just another guy, a frightened black man in a world where being black put you below the lowest rung of white society. There were no black men in tuxedos playing the violin at the symphony or elected to the Seate or at the heads of corporations. There were no black men on the board of directors re representing our interests in Africa, and very few cruising up and down Central Avenue in police cars. Black men, as a rule, were not scientists or doctors or professors in college. There was not even one black plilosopher in all the history of the world, as reported by our universities, libraries or newspapers."In light of the recent presidential election, I think young people of all races but especially Black and White, should read this book, lest we forget. And hey, Mr. Mosley has also written Science Fiction (I'm a big fan), so they are gonna be on my list sometime in the offing.
Walter Mosley is doing something very interesting. Under the guise of writing a series of private eye novels (they really are not) he is chronicling what African-American life was like in important times in America’s recent past. This book examines a group somewhat like the Black Panthers and their deeds and misdeeds. The Easy Rawlins character is an outsider to the group with a deep understanding of African-American culture and the dominant culture that wants to keep Rawlins and those who look like him in the place that white society has allowed for them.It is helpful to have Rawlins as a knowledgeable semi-outsider to guide readers through the three words of this story and help whiteys like me understand what drives them. The book is flawed because it is not all that interesting as a mystery and takes too long to get to its conclusion. I also grew weary of some of Mosley’s stylistic mannerisms. Still, the book was fresh in many ways, informative, insightful, and mostly very readable. It is a pleasure to discover what Mosley is doing in this series of books.
What do You think about Bad Boy Brawly Brown (2003)?
Okay...I got this from a friend...the 1st 150 pages bored me to death, haha! Then it took off! I'd like a bit more pace, book probably could've been 50 pages shorter. I'm interested in reading more about Easy Rawlings...and his deceased buddy Mouse. There were tidbits about Easy's past and it really made me want to find out what the whole Easy experience is. Like the friend who gave me the book said, it is a good book for what it is. I will be adding the rest of the Easy Rawlings books to my to-read list.
—Curtis Macon
We catch up with Easy in 1964, in a state of numb mourning for his best friend Raymond "Mouse" Alexander, who Easy had left without a pulse in an emergency room before Mouse's woman, Etta Mae, had busted a nurse's jaw taking his body out of the hospital. *Wink* Easy is determined to walk the straight and narrow, but can't refuse John the Bartender's request to get his step-son Brawly Brown out of the clutches of a proto-Black Panther group calling themselves the Urban Revolutionaries. In attempting to extricate Brawly, Easy discovers that various members of the group may be operating with different agendas than those stated in the organization's pamphlets and meetings. Easy's solution is both drastic and elegant, worthy of the "inner Mouse" who is always with Easy.
—Spiros
It's been a long time since I read this series about a black man in Los Angeles trying to make a life for himself and in the process becoming someone who finds out things for other people. I really liked the earlier books but this one never took off for me. Lots of good observations about the time and place (1964) but I couldn't keep the characters straight. The MC, Easy Rawlins, is asked to find the son of a friend. Seems he's mixed up with a group of Black Power types who may be sincere about community outreach and maybe not. The story line got very complicated but most of the characters didn't emerge as vivid individuals.
—Julia Hendon
