Many thanks to Triangle Sisters in Crime, guest speaker Jaden Terrell for mentioning this first novel by Walter Mosley. A master class in good writing. Great irony. Great vignette. In Chapter 1, the metaphor "a Black man with ten children and one on the way" becomes a vignette toward the novel's end. Great fix for the sagging middle. Great, economic style that is the small letter "c" continuity of thought that presages the mouse and Mouse of the novel. Evocative word choice in Chapter 4: bankbook. How long has it been since you've seen that term? Well done.
Mosley writes a first person narrative from an unflinching culturally accurate ethnic perspective. For several years, I had on a book shelf former president Barack Obama's Dreams From My Father and his highly praised account of his early years, another unflinching culturally accurate ethnic perspective. My drafts are much improved for reading these two great authors one after the other. What I really want to say: I first heard his name on Hillsborough Street in Raleigh, NC. What Teevee and mass media presented to me was how Caucasian he comes across on a Teevee screen and in mass media. Dreams adds the puzzle pieces of Black family and Black culture, and after reading I can see why racist, bigoted folk get their teeth set on edge. Effective writing: he saves the chronological story of his grandfather and father until the last chapter; the final paragraphs are a tour de force.
I'm looking forward to reading The Audacity of Hope.
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