Customer Reviews

The Man In My Basement

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(8)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

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.

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.

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

I received Mr. Mosley's recent novel (Man in My Basement) to do a review for Booking Matters Magazine. I was actually standing in the post office Christmas holiday lines when I received the novel and I immediately started reading it, initially to pass the time while waiting in a very long line. The storyline grabbed me from page one and didn't let me go until the very last page. The book itself is small in size...but has left me thirsty for more by Mr. Mosley. There are many authors out there now who can really write...I'd like to add that Mr. Mosley can not only write..but can tell a story that leaves any reader in deep thought. The Man in my Basement (while fiction) will challenge the reader to look at the issue of "guilt" and how powerful it can be in a person's life. The main characters were some I will NEVER forget and I actually even read parts of the story to my husband and we've discussed the book (and I am the one who really read it). Mr. Mosley, I do hope you check on line reviews because I want you to know that you have fans out here who absolutely adore your work. You really have set another standard for authors. The Man in My Basement is a very powerful, thought provoking, thought challenging novel that is highly recommended to ALL. This story will stay with me for a very long time. And as stated in my title of this review...this novel leaves you...ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT! Buy it and read it today!!!!

Unlike other reviewers, I'll not outline the plot of this strange novel again but will try to unravel the basic theme. I'll admit, that is a somewhat daunting task. What is evil? Try to define it without religious overtones. The wolf and the bear have no concept of evil, just of survival--according to the man in the basement. Perhaps, as one philosopher has pointed out, "What truly separates man from the beast are pointless ritual and mindless superstition." Wolves have no truck with such human concepts such as "evil." Wolves just do what they do. But man with his bicameral brain thinks about what he does.

As he tries to sort it out for himself and his "warden," the man in the basement seeks some form of atonement for all the imagined or real evil he has done or helped do or perpetuated. But masochism and discomfort and filth are hardly atonement--at least, in my view. And self punishment does not help the prisoner in the end, as the reader will discover.

Supposedly the man in the basement has had some sort of healing effect upon Charles. He is more cordial, does better with women, etc. after his encounters with his "prisoner." Maybe the money had something to do with it. He says at one point that the money doesn't matter. But I wonder....

The book is very nicely written, moves well, and has interesting characters.

unlike many of the other reviewers, I'll leave a brief REVIEW and not a BOOK REPORT that hits all the major plot points and gives away the flow of the novel. (god bless the internet and its accesibility) the writing is excellent, pulls you in from page one. the writer has a way of drawing flawed characters and making them human and makes the reader empathize with their plight, even if they are characters, for the most part, we wouldn't want to spend time with in the real world. Walter Mosley gets to the heart and soul of his characters, something that many writers fail to do. He's not afraid to show you the unprettiness of his characters and this country. What amazes me is how many reviewers are genre-stuck and not able to grade a story on its on merit. "it's not a mystery.." DUH. This novel is another expample that shows why Mosley is great. it's not about race or genre. He's an excellent writer, period.

This is my third book of Walter Mosley's. I read two of his Easy Rawlins books, liked them, and looked forward to this work when it was suggested by my black literature discussion group. The ladies in the group didn't like the book, but the men did. After a slow start, characters start developing. Charles Blakey is a ne'er do well, who is easy to dislike. Anniston Bennet, who wants to stay in Blakey's basement, is so tangibly irritable to the reader. The junk in Blakey's cellar, which he decides to clean out to prepare for Bennet, turns out to be familial treasure. All of what is important occurs in this basement. The title is the key in this highly symbolic work. The basement symbolizes so much: the inner person, as well as the whole world. In this basement, a free white man learns slavery, and a vapid black man develops a will. Outside the basement, with significant others, Blakey is bound, and cannot tell of the ordeal occurring "within" him. Inside the basement's cell Bennet dares to come to grips with what his freedom has wrought. The book is tantalizing in its touching upon the Great Ideas that have moved and formed civilization. I recommend this big work in a small book.

Insofar as it's an ambitious novel of ideas, The Man In My Basement should be lauded. But that's what makes the squandered opportunity it represents doubly frustrating. Mosley brings up the issue of race in America (and, to a lesser degree, elsewhere), the dynamics of power, the dueling impulses of honesty and self-protection in relationships, the encumbrances and opportunities of family and of community...it's a lot to talk about, and in this slim volume, he never really gets beyond introducing these themes before ending the book. The interactions between the protagonist and the man he locks in his basement--indeed, between the protagonist and all his characters--seem like snippets from a larger, richer piece.

Mosley's prose doesn't help. There's a certain laziness which makes the scenes hazy, and seems to infect the characters. The man who asks to be locked in the basement speaks in cheap aphorisms, and so his quest for absolution never really takes on any spiritual urgency, any more than might that of the quasi-philosophical Bond supervillain on which he sometimes seems to be modeled. Mosley's obsessively flat style becomes leaden when his "hero" reaches for eloquence, but rather than sounding in these moment like a character reaching for the humble expression of unpoetic truths, he ends up sounding like the uncertain author leaving things vague and so less assailable. The novel presents the perilous ambiguities of, say Herman Melville's Bartleby the Scrivener, but without Melville's rigor, so it just comes across as half-considered mush.

Brilliant and provocative tale about an apathetic black man about to lose the family mansion because of his inability to move forward in the world. Along comes a strange man who offers him enough money to get out of debt and re-start his life, if only he'll rent out his basement for several months. At first he refuses, but eventually concedes to the bizarre request.

The nature of the relationship between the two men goes through several shifts, from fear to animosity to wary acceptance and outright hatred. Both men's souls are revealed through the extensive dialogues they share in the basement.

Mosley again spotlights the conflict between races, but goes much further - into the very nature of evil, redemption, and self-imposed purgatory.

Even-paced and representative of not only society, but also individual goals, actions, and motivations, THE MAN IN MY BASEMENT is my favorite Walter Mosley book to date. I would go so far as to say it's brilliant. Touching on the areas of love, power, jealousy, guilt, and retribution we witness a multitude of thought-provoking observations that will lead to heated and multi-angled conversations amongst readers. It further justifies the notion that for every action, there is a reaction and/or consequence.

Charles Blakey is basically an underachiever accustomed to getting by doing as little as possible. When he's fired from his job at the bank for embezzlement, he becomes concerned with keeping his house in Sag Harbor that has been in his family for generations. Unable to get a job around the small town and somewhat content in sitting around doing nothing, he receives an unexpected visitor who can possibly assist him in his troubles.

Anniston Bennet is white, wealthy, and normally gets what he wants from people. When he requests to live in Blakey's basement for the summer at a whopping offer of $50,000, Blakey doesn't quite know what to expect. He immediately tells him no, but after the man leaves, promising to return later, Blakey reluctantly comes to the conclusion that he'll be able to pay his mortgage with the money. This begins a journey as he later accepts the proposition and spends the most bizarre summer of his life, learning not only about the man he's rented his basement out to (and who's living in a cage), but also learning more about the world.

While it isn't clear what time period Mosley is writing about, it's crystal clear that the purpose of this book is to transcend time, to make the reader think and question life, reflecting back on ones own experiences in life, good and bad. Bennet represents the world, its problems and the things that concern us, while Blakey probably represents an individual's role in society. I'm not quite sure, but I do know that at the end of the book, you find yourself asking...was Charles really in charge and exactly what impact does guilt have in our lives? Bennet seemed to be remorseful and seeking retribution for his actions, but was he really?

Reviewed by Tee C. Royal

of The RAWSISTAZ Reviewers