Man in My Basement [Paperback]

Walter Mosley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 19, 2004

Charles Blakey is a young black man whose life is slowly crumbling. His parents are dead, he can't find a job, he drinks too much, and his friends have begun to desert him. Worst of all, he's fallen behind on the mortgage payments for the beautiful home that's belonged to his family for generations. When a stranger - a white man - offers him USD50,000 in cash to rent out his basement for the summer, Charles needs the money too badly to say no. He knows that the stranger must want something more than a basement view. Sure enough, he has a very particular - and bizarre - set of requirements, and Charles tries to satisfy him without getting lured into the strangeness. But he sees an opportunity to understand the secrets of the white world, and his summer with a man in his basement turns into a dark game of power and manipulation.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Even in his genre fiction, which includes mysteries (the Easy Rawlins, Fearless Jones and Socrates Fortlaw series) and SF (Blue Light, etc.), Mosley has not been content simply to spin an engrossing action story but has sought to explore larger themes as well. In this stand-alone literary tale, themes are in the forefront as Mosley abandons action in favor of a volatile, sometimes unspoken dialogue between Charles Blakey and Anniston Bennet. Blakey, descended from a line of free blacks reaching back into 17th-century America, lives alone in the big family house in Sag Harbor. Bennet is a mysterious white man who approaches Blakey with a strange proposition-to be locked up in Blakey's basement-that Blakey comes to accept only reluctantly and with reservations. The magnitude of Bennet's wealth, power and influence becomes apparent gradually, and his quest for punishment and, perhaps, redemption, proves unsettling-to the reader as well as to Blakey, who finds himself trying to understand Bennet as well as trying to recast his own relatively purposeless life. The shifting power relationship between Bennet and Blakey works nicely, and it is fitting that Blakey's thoughts find expression more in physicality than in contemplation; his involvements with earthy, sensual Bethany and racially proud, sophisticated and educated Narciss reflect differing possibilities. The novel, written in adorned prose that allows the ideas to breathe, will hold readers rapt; it is Mosley's most philosophical novel to date, as he explores guilt, punishment, responsibility and redemption as individual and as social constructs. While it will be difficult for this novel to achieve the kind of audience Mosley's genre fiction does, the author again demonstrates his superior ability to tackle virtually any prose form, and he is to be applauded for creating a rarity, an engaging novel of ideas.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Bookmarks Magazine

This relatively short novel asks a lot of its readers--more so, even, than Mosley's Easy Rawlins mysteries or more serious fiction, plays, and essays. His two unlikely (and largely unlikable) heroes are left to tackle such huge questions as the nature of evil and redemption, guilt and punishment, power, ambition, and America's role in the world. Some critics found that the book did not dig deep enough or come close enough to offering any concrete conclusions, and they criticized the overly philosophical dialogue. Others felt that Mosley masterfully integrated his powerful prose with a provocative, page-turning story that constitutes nothing less than a masterpiece. Where some saw emptiness, others found brilliance. Maybe that's the point.

Copyright © 2004 Phillips & Nelson Media, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Serpents Tail; 1st edition (May 19, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1852428503
• ISBN-13: 978-1852428501
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.6 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (75 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #4,746,380 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
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

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