Cannonball Read 17

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

Through the Chasm of Time

The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey by Walter Mosley

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This book is really tough to qualify and really easy to appreciate. It seems like since the aughts, almost 20 years since he published Devil In a Blue Dress that Walter Mosley wanted to write less about whodunnit mysteries and more about the mystery of memory, time, and life. He’s quite good at it. The Socrates Fortlow books, the Leonid McGill books, Debbie Doesn’t Do It Anymore, The Man in My Basement….Mosley really has a habit of making existentialism sound entertaining when wrapped up in a story. Aside from Always […]

The Socratic Method

Walkin' The Dog by Walter Mosley

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Read as part of CBR12 Bingo: UnCannon. Walter Mosley is black. This book continues what I believe to be Walter Mosley’s best work: these series of small, wrenching looks into the life of Socrates Fortlow, an ex-con trying to make a new life for himself in Watts, Los Angeles. He lives with the mentality of one who is permanently imprisoned. Every step is a hazard, every chance encounter a threat. His actions are extremely measured and guarded. This was written when Mosley’s talent and ambition […]

Ain’t No Love In the Heart of the City

Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned by Walter Mosley

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Whew. I don’t even really know where to begin with this one. Not because it’s a complex book. On the surface, it’s rather simple: 14 tales of an ex-con trying to make it in the underbelly of south central Los Angeles. No more, no less. No central plot except a man trying to survive. But hell, man, this is a tale of living. James Weldon Johnson once wrote in a poem: “Make me a world.” Walter Mosley does that. I’ve had an interesting journey with […]

Under My Bed, In Your Head

The Man In My Basement by Walter Mosley

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When I reviewed Walter Mosley’s Debbie Doesn’t Do It Anymore, I wrote at length about how his late period works take on this sort of mumble-noir tone with an atmosphere that feels ethereal. Much like Mosley’s Leonid McGill series, these all seem to take place on a parallel plane of human existence. Mosley seems more interested in using these stories to explore the existential rather than tell a simple gangster or noir tale, like say the Easy Rawlins series. For the most part, in his other books […]

Adult Actress

Debbie Doesn't Do It Anymore by Walter Mosley

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Walter Mosley is one of the more unique and versatile mainstream writers out there. Most noted for his Easy Rawlins mystery series, Mosley has also written some simple noir tales, science and speculative fiction, and other stuff that can be difficult to categorize. This one falls in the other. I’ve always meant to read a non-mystery by Mosley and what better time than being isolated during a pandemic? This one is an interesting tale. There are crime elements but it’s not really a crime story. […]

To Live and Die in LA

Blonde Faith by Walter Mosley

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After going through most of Walter Mosley’s Leonid McGill series, I decided to switch back to the books that drew me to his work in the first place: good ol’ Easy Rawlins. Having read most of the McGill books (and unlike the Rawlins series, they’re mostly the same in terms of plot and tone) I have a fresh perspective on the Rawlins ones and Mosley’s evolution as a writer. McGill has always felt like the character Mosley wanted to write but didn’t get to until […]



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