Sabtu, 17 Maret 2012

An Iconic Private Eye Resurrected

Little Green Easy Rawlins Mystery

Little Green Easy Rawlins Mystery

First off, it's been such a long time between books and I truly thought the last book Blonde Faith was the last but with the way Easy ended up in the shape he was in, I knew good and well there was more to come. The sad thing is that we had to wait a good five and a half years to get it. Anyway, in the book, a good two months pass and Easy is slowly coming out of his coma from the accident he was in at the end of the last one. And already his ace coon boon, has a request that he look for a lost young boy who was last known to be in the company of hippies. So, Easy enlists the help of master herbalist and seer Mama Jo, who helps him get back on this side of the world with an elixir that will give him strength he needs to finish the case and get his health back on track. Of course, with Easy and Mouse not too far behind, you know there is surely to be some mayhem, murder and bodies to come with it. For the Mosley fans, this book won't(or may)disappoint you. my thing is I forgot what went down in the last book so as to catch up with this book but still the read to me kept me glued in. not at first, but with time and things started to work out, I got caught up in it and had to get it to the very end.

Get your Little Green Easy Rawlins Mystery Now!

5 komentar:

  1. I, like a lot of Easy Rawlins fans, thought I'd seen the last of him in Blonde Faith back in 2007. I had no idea, until I saw Little Green being offered up on Amazon Vine, that Walter Mosley was planning a comeback for Easy. But I'm certainly glad he did! Easy who is 'mostly dead' from injuries he sustained in the car crash in Blonde Faith was discovered at the scene of the crash by his life-long friend Raymond Alexander whom we know as Mouse. After that he remains unconscious for some days. When he awakens he finds himself in a strange house but being tended by loved ones. In this weakened condition his friend Mouse asks him to find a young man who's gone missing by the name of Evander Noon whom Mouse calls Little Green, hence the title of the book. Even in his weakened state Easy's detective heart starts beating a little faster and he realizes that he must take the case or lie there and die. So it's his calling in life that brings him back to life. This is another fine Easy Rawlins tale replete with the vernacular of the times. It's rough and sometimes coarse as the characters need to be, given the situation. I highly recommend it.

    BalasHapus
  2. I turned on to Walter Mosley through the Denzel Washington movie Devil in the Blue Dress, and I started with that book. I thought the book miles better than the movie, which wasn't bad but which didn't give us much of the inner life of Mosley's protagonist, Easy Rawlins. Rawlins has become more complex with each book, it seems. Here, he comes back from a horrific car crash, which may have been a disguised suicide attempt. Not even fully recovered, he looks for a Black teen who's gone off to Sunset Blvd. looking for hippies and who hasn't come back (the story takes place in 1967). He does this as a favor to Mouse, his stone-killer best friend and sociopath, who not only saved him from the car wreck, but now gives him a chance to get out of bed after two months of semi-coma.

    Easy finds the boy fairly quickly, but the kid is in a world of trouble. The mystery part of the book is well-plotted. As to the portrayal of Sixties hippies, I can say only that Mosley's experience isn't mine, although he does catch the darker elements of the movement -- the ones which soured. There are also, of course, Mosley's insights on US race relations, but far more interesting to me is Rawlins's psychological journey. The crash has left him considering himself a dead man lingering on the edge of living. By the end of the book, you see him coming back, knowing that he has many reasons to live.

    I also love Mosley's prose, at his best a master, as in this excerpt, describing an exhausted Easy climbing a long series of stairs:

    "I ... had the almost hallucinatory impression of leaving an image of myself on each passing stair. Every progressive Easy was a few years older and weaker than the last. When I made it tot the small stone landing it felt like I had reached the century mark."

    A "Nude Descending the Staircase" (also about time) in reverse. This sort of writing lifts this mystery novel from excellent genre fiction -- Parker, MacDonald, McBain, etc. -- to excellent novel, Raymond Chandler/Chester Himes territory. Highly recommended.

    BalasHapus
  3. I've been a fan of Walter Mosley's writing since I discovered the first Easy Rawlins novel. With LITTLE GREEN, he's brought back Easy after a six year absence and death.

    His friend Mouse finds him on a cliff edge after his car had plunged over into the water and people had believed his body had floated away. Old Mama Jo had told Mouse Easy wasn't dead and the little man had found his friend.

    After a month of near coma, he comes back and finds Mouse sitting beside him. Knowing Mouse, Easy asks what he needs. A young man had gone missing a few days before and needed to be found.

    Easy gets up off his sick bed, with the aid of Mama Jo's-voodoo medicine-and begins looking.

    The trail leads him into the hippie culture of L.A., a group Easy feels a strange kinship for. People looked down on by the straight establishment for the way they look, dress, believe.

    It also leads him into confrontations with hoodlum types also looking for the young man.

    What I like about Mosley's writing is it gives me a glimpse into a world different from my own, a world I wish to know better, a world where people weren't judged by their accomplishments or honesty, but the color of their skin.

    And a damned good tale along the way.

    BalasHapus
  4. Its been awhile, since 2007 in fact but its 'Easy' with Mr. Mosley. I slipped into the latest segment of Easy Rawlins like I do my favorite pair of jeans. Fast forward to 2013, Mosley does not disappoint nor does he insult Rawlins fans; 'Little Green' is mature and sublime like a glass of aged port or a sliver of aged cheese. I will say the 300 some odd pages just aren't enough.

    The characters are back: Mouse, Mama Jo, Feather, Jesus, and so many more. Easy is older more vulnerable as he recuperates from a near death experience. Mosley writes about Easy's transition into a new life; a milestone we can all agree to - aging. While Easy has Mama Jo's tonic to bring him back - we all have our own 'tonics' of resurrection. Mosley has done an outstanding job of reviving Easy Rawlings to reader fans after a SIX year hiatus! Whew!

    Mosley's portrayal of the black man captivates and certifies. I can't get enough of Easy Rawlins...

    "Little Green" is Worth the Wait! Reads Great and like my old, trusty pair of jeans; IT FITS! Kuddos to Mr. Mosley for an outstanding story! Please don't let it be another six year wait! ;)

    BalasHapus