Customer Reviews

White Butterfly

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a wonderfully crafted novel that takes Easy Rawlins into uncharted emotional waters. I give it four stars instead of five only because I felt the resolution to the mystery aspect of the story was a little too pat. However, the moving and unexpected emotional crisis faced by Easy near the end was truly heartbreaking. As with all the Easy Rawlins books, author Walter Mosley has taken the tried-and-true mystery genre and turned it into a commentary on race and class. Taken together, these books constitute an American masterpiece, and White Butterfly is one of the best.

This was my first Mosley/Easy Rawlins mystery and I enjoyed it immensely. It had depth of character and interesting plot twists and turns. I also liked the fact that it was a story about African Americans in 1956 Los Angeles and it didn't rely on the 'N' word for shock value (unlike Ellroy and a few others). I think it was a great introduction to the series.

... Mosley gives us a male character who isn't afraid to cry and when he gets angry he doesn't get violent but does get even. The mystery surrounding the death of the white stripper is cleverly written into the plot and when the clues reveal the killer they all make sense. This series improves with each novel and Easy is turning into a complex person who has demons of his own to battle.

Earlier this year I mentioned that this year will be my "year of Michael Crichton"... now I might change that to my "year of Walter Mosley". Damn this book was good! I'm of those readers who don't have to read a "series" in order to enjoy it. I love reading about one of my favorite literary characters (Easy) and his extremely colorful life. I love reading how diverse circumstances helped formed him into the man he is. I started reading the Easy Rawlins "series" about five years (or so) and I started when his relationship with Bonita has been going on for a while and Jesus wasn't mute. THAT one threw me, but like I said, I didn't read this "series" in order.

White Butterfly is a classic Easy Rawlins novel with that perfect Walter Mosley touch all over the place. To call Easy a ghetto Renaissance man would not be a stretch. He seems to know everyone, everyone seems to know him, knows the right questions to ask, has best friends that would frighten Hitler, and has a soul that is as real as heat on a sidewalk. I think that is why I love reading about Easy so much. His soul. There isn't anything extraordinary about him really until you start to understand him. He's an ordinary man with a... original soul. In another time Easy might have led crowds in Birmingham. In another time Easy might have taught Plato. In another time Easy might have written a play for Shakespeare. In another time Easy might have written a prologue for W.E.B. Dubois. But in this time, in this place, in this book he's just a man. A man trying to find the killer or killers of young women.

Unfortunately, then like today, nobody cares if a Black woman is killed but the moment a white lady meets her maker all hell breaks loose. Easy is pretty much forced to take on this case to find out who is raping, brutalizing, and killing young women around L.A. The corrupt L.A.P.D. blackmails Easy to help them and then "fails" to give him the important information. In classic, unique Easy fashion he finds out what he needs to know and finds out a number of things he DOESN'T want to know. Intertwined within this story is also a story about family, a man's broken heart, a man's black soul, corrupt government looking out for us, how a woman sees her man, how this man's family sees him, and the continual test of a tested friendship.

What's the quote: "the more things change, the more they stay the same". That adage could not be truer within the pages of this novel. You'll shake your head over the dimwits in the L.A.P.D. and the practices they still use to this day even though they don't work. You'll recognize the struggle of a Black man and his family in the streets of L.A., you'll see that the need to survive back then is the same and the WAY you survive is just the same. Walter Mosley is a true living legend and his work is absolutely mesmerizing.

My first Mosley and still my favorite, though I have enjoyed every single one - through Walkin The Dog, Gone Fishin and the Socrates stories. It's interesting how Devil In A Blue Dress and Always Outnumbered translated beautifully into movie/TV presentations. Perfect actors, perfect ambiance. Mr. Mosley must be gratified. I'm always on the lookout for more Easy Rawlins...and Mouse.

Walter Mosley again demonstrates his incredible ability to recreate hard-boiled detective fiction in a fresh and original manner, but without quite the explosive shock produced by _Devil in a Blue Dress_. Perhaps Easy has simply mellowed a bit with age and marriage, but he seems neither as driven nor as angry as before. The plot twist hinges on sex again, but somehow the revelation is less believable than in Mosley's debut. Fortunately, these problems are counterbalanced by glorious writing and characters. In particular, Raymond "Mouse" Alexander--either the best or worst sidekick a detective could have--is back and in great zoot-suited, woman-chasing, enemy-demolishing form. Mosley's careful depiction of Easy's ambivalent dependence on, love for, and disgust with Mouse is a wonder of characterization. While _White Butterfly_ lacks the edge that made Mosely's previous work soar above all other detective fiction on the market, it's still an addictive, delightful page-turner, and in terms of atmosphere, Mosley is still better than any other writer.

I've fallen in love with the Easy Rawlins Mysteries and this one didn't disappoint. Mosley is a talented writer. Easy is a complicated, honest man with occasional ambiguous views of right and wrong. He's a good man who does what he needs to and tries to be a good black role model.
I like how Mosley takes the detective genre and spins it out of control. It's not the typical detective book. There are always elements of race, questionable legal issues, and what's right and wrong.
I love Mosley's Rawlins books.

The third Easy Rawlins book catches up with the proud black hero in 1956. Fairly prosperous due to his hidden real estate holdings, he's got a pretty young wife and a beautiful baby daughter added to his Los Angeles household. The tension between his shady "street" past and his attempts to domesticate himself is a running theme, as Easy struggles with what it means to be in a trusting and open relationship. One morning the police come knocking, and ask for his help regarding a series of murders. Several black "good time girls" have been killed in recent weeks, but now a white woman is dead too. The police like to use Easy as a kind of unregistered undercover agent in the black community (although given the number of times they troop in and out of his house, you would think people might start to wonder about him). There's the standard stuff about racism that one has come to expect from the series (the police never cared about the murders until a white girl was involved), which doesn't make it less true, just a little less powerful. This time, there's even a black police officer involved in the case--although by the end, he admits to Easy that the notion of working to change the system from within is a lost cause (perhaps a statement of Mosley's own sentiment on American society?). As always, the police aren't really asking for Easy's help, so much as telling him he'd better help.

The investigation leads him back into the street life he's been trying to avoid, and inevitably, there's a bit of a fall that pushes him and his wife further apart. He's not a good communicator, and his binge drinking only causes more problems. Indeed, he drinks so much in this book that it's hard to imagine him actually being able to carry out the investigation as well as he does. The plot grows steadily more convoluted, as evidence of police conspiracy mounts, a trip to Oakland with Mouse uncovers even more murders, and Easy's personal life spirals more and more out of control. The resolution to the murders is kind of a lame letdown, but the drama of Easy's own life makes up for this somewhat. A very bitter book, but one that leaves you wanting to start the next in the series immediately to see how Easy is going to handle the changes in his life.

As always, Mosley delivers here a racially charged, highly engrossing detective story. He does plot and mood better than just about any mystery writer at work today.

Mosley's third Easy Rawlins mystery - continuing the careful character development of the first two mysteries. Mosley is a master of characterization and in my view, simply uses the detective story to carry out his craft. The novel is set in 1956 Watts and portrays Rawlin's struggle with racist police, class issues in his own community (where he comes into a little property and has to conceal it), and marital difficulties in a very conservative, pre-civil rights era.

Once again the Los Angeles police blackmail Rawlins (by threatening to arrest one of his friends) into investigating a murder - this time when an apparent serial killer switches from black girls to a white coed. The investigation takes him into the dark world of prostitution and organized crime - leading to situations that threaten his marriage and put his own life in danger.

Rawlins is very different from most so-called "hard boiled" detectives - strong and intelligent, without being macho. And full of foibles and compassion, consistent with the sensitivity of an intelligent black male who has been kicked around by a profoundly racist society - yet hasn't become bitter and angry.

Mouse, Rawlin's sidekick, is back - a man who is like a child emotionally - but who, unlike Rawlin's lets his anger get on top of him. And who is so large and powerful this can get deadly.

Dr Stuart Jeanne Bramhall, author of THE MOST REVOLUTIONARY ACT: MEMOIR OF AN AMERICAN REFUGEE