Walter Mosley writes about a world completely outside my experience, even though his settings are (generally) America in the years just before and after my own birth. But I’ve never been black nor lived deep in the urban neighborhoods of his stories and so the emotions and attitudes expressed are as alien as the far-future humans of Iain Banks. Here’s an example, from Easy Rawlins’ narrative (p. 106):
“I had reached out for the white man’s brass ring and got caught up short, that’s all. They taught me when I was a boy to stay in my place. I was a fool for forgetting that lesson, and now all I was doing was paying for that foolishness.“
(Previous Mosley writeups: White Butterfly, The Wave, Fortunate Son)
Black Betty covers an episode in 1961 in which Easy is hired to track down Elizabeth Eady, the title character, after she goes missing from a wealthy woman’s estate where Eady’d worked for 25 years. There are, of course, complications: from the color of his skin, the police (corrupt and otherwise), lies and misdirections and even the threat of danger to his informally adopted children.
Further troubling him are the release of best friend Mouse from prison after five years, because Mouse is going to kill somebody for turning him in–maybe even Easy, if no other candidate is found–and an attempt to swindle him out of his modest but meaningful real estate holdings (leading to the quote cited above). And above all, the man is simply weary, tired to the bone from life’s battering.
While this is not the best Mosley I’ve read, Black Betty is still very good, entertaining and educational and thought provoking.
recommended
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