Man In My Basement [Import] [Paperback]

Walter Mosley (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Back Bay/Little, Brown & Co.; 1ST edition (2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852427906
• ISBN-13: 978-1852427900
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (75 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #8,038,449 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Walter Mosley is one of America's most celebrated and beloved writers. His books have won numerous awards and have been translated into more than twenty languages.

Mosley is the author of the acclaimed Easy Rawlins series of mysteries, including national bestsellers Cinnamon Kiss, Little Scarlet, and Bad Boy Brawly Brown; the Fearless Jones series, including Fearless Jones, Fear Itself, and Fear of the Dark; the novels Blue Light and RL's Dream; and two collections of stories featuring Socrates Fortlow, Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned, for which he received the Anisfield-Wolf Award, and Walkin' the Dog. He lives in New York City.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars I should have bought it, January 22, 2004

By 

PFS (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Man in My Basement: A Novel (Hardcover)

Walter Mosely has always been rather hit or miss with me. His Easy Rawlins mysteries are good reads yet a bit forgetable after a few months. The Fearless Jones books are entertaining but not much more. Blue Light just sucked and I didn't finish it. But he's always been a good enough writer to make me take notice when he has something new out. I saw Man in My Basement at the bookstore last week and read the synopsis. Sounded interesting but not enough for me to pay $22 for a 250 page book. So I got it from the library.

After finishing it, I think I should have just bought the thing because I know I'll be reading it again and passing it on to all my friends. First of all, this is the best writing Mosley has done so far. Miles ahead of all his other stuff in terms of pace, tone, theme and overall prose. Second, it's original. I don't recall ever reading a story quite like it. Third, it's unpredictible (unlike some of his "mysteries"). I thought I had an idea where the story was going and was even dreading some heavy-handed sermonizing and lectures about race relations. Fortunately, it's not about any of that. The themes examined in the book are way more universal and I even found myself rethinking a few things about my own day-to-day living.

The Man in My Basement is Mosely in prime form and I hope he continues to push the envelope like this.

43 of 47 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bizarre But Brilliant!, January 21, 2004

By 

Louis N. Gruber "Author of Jay" (Lexington, SC United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Man in My Basement: A Novel (Hardcover)

Charles Blakey is so far down he is about to hit bottom. A smart man who reads science fiction, he is not able to get a job, drinks all day, and is down to his last dollar. Then the mysterious small white man appears, Anniston Bennet, with a bizarre proposition. Bennet will pay an enormous sum of money just to stay in Blakey's basement for two months.

Actually, it gets stranger, for what Bennet really wants is to be imprisoned in that basement in a specially constructed steel cage. He has--let's say--issues he needs to work out. Not much happens after that except the increasingly stormy relationship between these two very different men, their dialogue, and Blakey's desperate attempts to maintain his sanity. The experience will shake Charles Blakey's world to its foundations, and it may change yours as well.

This is a bizarre story, but a powerful one, beautifully written. Author Mosley is a master writer. His characterizations are brilliant. His portrayal of Charles Blakey's downfall, confusion, struggles and redemption is a work of genius. Even the sex scenes are worth reading--earthy and unsettling. If you don't read anything else this year, read The Man In My Basement. In other words, I recommend it highly! Reviewed by Louis N. Gruber.

21 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars And Now for Something Completely Different from Mosley, October 2, 2004

By 

J Scott Morrison (Middlebury VT, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Man in My Basement: A Novel (Hardcover)

Walter Mosley as a writer is hard to pin down. He's written mystery novels, featuring Easy Rawlins, and at least one science fiction novel, 'Blue Light.' He's written about one of the most interesting characters in American fiction, Socrates Fortlow, in a group of short stories, 'Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned' and 'Walkin' the Dog.' And now he's written a novel set on Long Island, far from his usual Los Angeles scene, in a community of African-Americans who have been there since before the Revolution (that's the American Revolution, folks!). And he's concocted a wildly improbable plot that if nothing else convinces that Mosley has a wickedly inventive and creative mind.

But most of all, and true in all of Mosley's writing, there is an undercurrent of subtly examined moral and ethical issues. Not the kind that clobbers you over the head with preachiness, but the kind that draws you in and makes you start thinking hard about things that are deep and disturbing, issues like 'good' and 'evil.'

This novel, which I've now read twice, has stayed with me long after most books are distant memories. There is something profoundly disturbing and yet profoundly moving in this short book. So, in spite of there already being 30+ reviews of 'The Man in My Basement,' I felt I had to add my endorsement.

Urgently recommended.

Scott Morrison