Walkin' the Dog [Hardcover]

Walter Mosley (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Little Brown (1997)
• ASIN: B000OFQ7JE
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (35 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,634,082 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

13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Compelling, November 11, 1999

By 

T. Martin "computer addict" (Rye, NY USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Walkin' the Dog (Hardcover)

Walter Moseley is a rare gem of a writer and thinker in an age of relativism. He uses his magnificent character Socrates Fortlow to ask the big questions--what does it mean to live a moral life? What's more, Moseley uses inner city LA to ask if such a life is possible in a setting of poverty and crime. Socrates Fortlow is one of the most compelling literary characters I've encountered in a long time and while I enjoyed "Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned" more, "Walkin' the Dog" finds a more complicated Socrates than the first time around. Moseley is a wonderful writer with an omniverously curious mind. It's a rewarding read.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An original character from a powerful writer, April 19, 2000

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: Walkin' the Dog (Hardcover)

Socrates Fortlow is one of the great creations in American fiction. A man still living out his sentence even though he's been out of prison nine years, he struggles to be a good man, a decent man, a man who makes a difference. He takes care of his two-legged dog, his adopted son Darryl, and tries to defend his neighborhood from the depredations of a bad cop; but Mosley, a writer whose prose is poetic, does not romanticize him. There is life in this collection of scenes set in LA's South Central.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excllent storyline and street philosophy, September 29, 2000

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Walkin' the Dog (Paperback)

After residing as a guest of the State of Indiana for half of his life, sexagenarian Socrates Fortlow has gone straight for the past decade, living in Los Angeles. However, once convicted as a murderer-rapist, always convicted by the police. Any violent crime in the neighborhood means Socrates is one of the usual suspects. In his brave barren world, Socrates is becoming a champion of the underdog (human and canine), but has no idea where his new role will lead him.

WALKIN' THE DOG is actually an interrelated short story collection that works because Walter Mosley makes each story show growth in Socrates. Nothing is sacred especially society's major social, political, and racial issues as the star of the book lives up to his more illustrious namesake with a street corner philosophy. Readers will enjoy this anthology and want to read the first Socrates story (see ALWAYS OUTNUMBERED, ALWAYS OUTGUNNED) as well as demand from Mr. Mosley a follow-up tale that shows what happens to the lead protagonist at the crosswalk of life.

Harriet Klausner