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Easy Rawlins - amateur sleuth
by way of helping troubled friends
Paris Minton - used bookstore owner in 1950s Socrates Fortlow - ex-convict and hero All are black men living in the Watts section of Los Angeles, California "Bad Boy Brawly Brown""I know that you aren't a bad man, Easy. But like I said, you hang around some real hard times."
So Easy took his advice and made a phone call to Bonnie to beg her into his life. And it must have worked since six months later she's living with him and his unofficially adopted children, Jesus (who they call Juice) and Feather. Also a member of the household is that little yellow dog who still hates Easy. But Easy keeps him for Feather and to remind him about the dark and dangerous. All seems to be going as John recommended, except for Easy's guilt and recurrent nightmares over not being able to save Mouse's life. But on this morning his son mentions that he wants to drop out of high school with only a year and a half left to graduate. And bartender John, whom he's barely talked to in the past year, calls Easy for a favor. There was a time when Easy used to trade in favors, helping people who couldn't go to the authorities. That was before he had the honest work he does now as supervising senior head custodian at Sojourner Truth Junior High School. The thing about favors and Easy is that they tend to lead to trouble and murdered bodies. And even though the little yellow dog sticks his nose out from under the kitchen cabinet, Easy is inexplicably giddy from this phone call. Mind you this is the same John that advised Easy to straighten out his life. Although John asks Easy to come to his construction site, it turns out that the meeting to talk over his troubles is at his home with his girlfriend, Alva Torres. Since Alva doesn't take to Easy's old lifestyle too well; in fact, she feels "an economy of trading favors" is criminal activity, Easy's guessing that this favor is going to require sweat. Turns out Alva's son Brawly Brown is in trouble and they want Easy to find him and help get him back home. Brawly is running with The Urban Revolutionary Party otherwise known as the First Men. It doesn't take Easy very long to find Brawly, but getting him home is another thing all together. In fact, a number of times Easy thinks that he should just go to John and tell him that he's talked to Brawly but that the thing he's into is too dangerous for the family man he's trying to be. It was no more than the first few hours on the job that he runs across the first dead body. But, then again, Easy knows he needs this action in an odd way to help him deal with Mouse. Even though he's dead he's there for Easy. With their long history together, there aren't too many places that Easy goes that doesn't haven't a Mouse story attached to it and there isn't too many things that happen that doesn't recall a sage word from his best friend. |
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So he keeps at it, but unlike in the past where he'd tell a convincing lie to get at whatever information he needed, this time he tells the truth consistently, whether to the First Men party leaders, the secret branch of the police trying to squash a revolution (and hoping Easy will leak information to them), or his many, many friends and acquaintances who seem to know the people he needs to contact. And no one believes the truth: that all he's doing is looking for a friend's girlfriend's son and the only payment he's requested is an invitation to dinner for his family. Pretty lame considering the seriousness of the trouble that the bad boy Brawly Brown is in and everyone wants to believe the Rawlins knows more than he's saying and wants more than he claims. Some even thinks he's a murderer. Easy Rawlins narrates in the first person, but it's a wiser person than the one that the events of the story happen to because he's telling the story in hindsight. This style adds a worldliness to Easy that is just plain fascinating and likable. Easy is always thinking and doing the unexpected. For example, Bonnie thinks that Easy should just tell Jesus to stay in school and get his degree. But Easy doesn't see it that way. He doesn't think that he'd get results by taking this approach, outside of Juice just dropping out of school. But it's more than that, Easy's not sure if Juice isn't right; at minimum Easy wants to think his answer through to make sure telling him to stay in school really is the right advice. So while he's going out around the clock on his mission to bring Brawly home, he's also using the time to sort out his answer, seeing examples in his daily interactions. Basically, Easy never just assumes that what the establishment says is right, is right for everyone. But neither does he assume a radical group like the First Men is the answer. When asked, Easy explains his view on race as this "I'm just an everyday black man, doin' the best I can in a world where the white man's de facto king. I got me a house with a tree growin' in the front yard. It's my tree, I could cut it down if I wanted to but even still you can't call it a black man's tree. It's just pine." And then he tells us that he'd given the leader of the Urban Revolutionary Party everything he needed to figure him out; and uses that as a kind of test to see how smart the man is. Later as he learns more about Brawly's motivation, he's notes the generational difference between himself and the young man. "He was intelligent and ambitious where I had been crafty and happy if I made through the day. I never questioned the white man's authority --- that was a given." Easy Rawlins is full of this kind of insight and paradoxical wisdom. When reading I use Post-It® flags to mark my favorite passages; by the time I was finished with this novel I had so many tabs it was useless trying to locate material for this review. I just cherish Easy Rawlins' thoughts as much as his action. If you take a look around this Web site, you'll soon realize that I'm a strong fan of all of Walter Mosley's fiction and nonfiction. So it's not too surprising that I highly recommend this novel. Although I think this one works as a stand-alone, I think it would be less frustrating if you read A Little Yellow Dog first, so that you can get a feel for what really happened in the back alley the day Mouse was shot. (I was glad to have my copy on hand to reread passages.) Also, if you are wondering why I skipped over the novel Gone Fishin' it is because this one takes place in 1939 when Easy is only 19, thus chronologically it is the real introduction to Ezekiel "Easy" Rawlins and Raymond "Mouse" Alexander, so maybe this one is also a good one to read before Bad Boy Brawly Brown as to understand more on how close Easy and Mouse were and why having Mouse die they way he did does not sit well with Easy. Then after you read these three novels, you'll probably want to go back to the beginning and learn more about when Easy acquired his two children. (Reviewed 6-30-02)
Read a chapter excerpt from Bad Boy Brawly Brown at MostlyFiction.com "A Little Yellow Dog"It's 1963,
and Easy Rawlins has been the supervising custodian at the Sojourner Truth
Junior High School in the Watts section of Los Angeles. He's been doing
this job for two years and is happy to be out of the street life. As the
book opens he knows something is strange. He's always the first one in
the parking lot and on this day But that isn't the only event to throw off his routine of two years. Principal Newgate calls him to his office to tell him that someone has anonymously accused Rawlins of stealing school supplies. Newgate also makes an underhanded move to demand that Rawlins release his only white employee to him - which of course Rawlins does not. Obviously this new principal does not like a well dressed black supervisor. Then as the day progresses, a man is found dead in the school gardens. Someone who looks a lot like Mrs. Walker's husband. Suspiciously, Mrs. Walker had rushed out of school earlier that day, claiming that her beloved dog was hit. When the day is over Easy Rawlins is still stuck with the little yellow dog, but now he's unsure about a lot of things. He decides to sneak it out not wanting to implicate Mrs. Walker before he knows the truth. The motivation to solve the crime and the whereabouts of Mrs. Walker, comes from his own self preservation as a black man. He knows that once the police make up their mind, they can plant any evidence to make it come out right for them. With his past, he's an easy target. But he has more to lose than his job (of how he got this job is interesting story in and of itself), he has too unofficially adopted children. That evening he visits Mrs. Walker's home and finds another dead body. Two years of taking care of his kids, cashing paychecks, staying sober and steering clear of the wrong women looks to be in jeopardy. What I like best about his novel is the feeling that Mosley gives about being an Afro-American, especially in this time period, and his social observations. Just the way he describes a black character, you know you are not seeing through white eyes. Throughout, we experience his community, his friends (Etta and Mouse) and hear the compassion, philosophies, and moral dilemmas of a man trying to do right. (With a color in each title, I can't help but think of Travis McGee, another fictional character with a similar narrative.) To boot, it's a real page turner with a tight and complicated mystery that keeps unfolding to the end. This book is a completely satisfactory read and I look forward to catching up on the rest in this series. (Reviewed 7-6-99) Amazon readers rating: from
26 reviews
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Bibliography (with links to Amazon.com):Easy Rawlins Mysteries:
Socrates Fortlow novels:
Paris Minton and Fearless Jones Mysteries:
Other novels:
Nonfiction:
Movies from books:
(back to top) Book Marks:
More on Walter Mosley at MostlyFiction.com:
About the Author:
Mosley lives in New York City with his wife Joy Kellman, a dancer. |
©1998-2003 MostlyFiction.com |
from
26 reviews
Walter
Mosley, born in 1952, grew up in Los Angeles and has been at various times
in his life a potter, a computer programmer, and a poet. His books have
been translated into twenty languages. Devil in a Blue Dress received
the 1990 Shamus Award for "Best First P.I. Novel" from the Private
Eye Writers of America and was also made into a movie starring Denzel
Washington. His collection of short stories featuring Socrates Fortlow,
a 60 year-old philosophical ex-convict, in Always Outnumbered, Always
Outgunned, won the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award. He has been the president
of the Mystery Writers of America and a member of the executive board
of the PEN American Center and Founder of its Open Book Committee and
on the board of directors of the National Book Awards. In 2002, Walter
Mosley won a Grammy for "Best Liner Notes" for a Richard Pryor
box set. 
