2.5 Stars Walter Mosley is one of the most prolific writers around. By the end of this year alone, he would have released a total of four books, includ2.5 Stars Walter Mosley is one of the most prolific writers around. By the end of this year alone, he would have released a total of four books, including the e-book, Odyssey, earlier in the year, the well-written and erotic Debbie Doesn't Do It Anymore: A Novel, a new Easy Rawlins mystery coming later this year called Rose Gold: An Easy Rawlins Mystery, and this one, Jack Strong. Not only does Mosley obviously not sleep, he is constantly challenging himself, and is always intriguing!
This short novella is no different. It follows a man with patchwork skin, multi-colored eyes, a middle finger of a black man, and the pinky of a white woman. Well, that's awkward. More importantly, his psyche is comprised of countless personalities (even one that just might be a wolf!) that are constantly rotating in dominance.
This fascinating concept makes way for interesting shifts in point-of-view as well as exciting surprises in Jack's abilities as different personalities come to the surface when needed with a variety of skills. The book is a bit disappointing though because it doesn't feel complete, instead it feels like a couple of chapters of an unfinished novel. Let's hope so, but this one failed to make a lasting impression. I'm still a fan though!
*Advanced Copy provided by the publisher through NetGalley for review*...more
Easy Rawlins needs money. Again. This guy can't get a break. Sometimes I wish that this series would just end where Easy acquires a bunch of money, seEasy Rawlins needs money. Again. This guy can't get a break. Sometimes I wish that this series would just end where Easy acquires a bunch of money, sends Feather off to a good school overseas, retires from running the streets, settles down on farmland out in Ventura somewhere with Bonnie and tend crops on his farm all day. He definitely deserves it. But nope, them's the breaks. Easy seems destined to roam the streets of Los Angeles as a private dick. Money trouble always seems to creep up on him. This time his rental properties need city-required repairs and his adopted daughter Feather has been invited to go to an expensive Ivy prep school. The LAPD stops by his new house just in time to offer him a heap of money to help locate a kidnapped UC Santa Barbara coed that might just turn out to be a Patty Hearst situation.
I'm starting to feel more and more now that Mosley should end this series soon. No, not really, I'd miss Easy too much! But it at least needs an overhaul. It's suffering from what befalls so many other detective series: stale plots. The plots are starting to get repetitive. The last book, Little Green: An Easy Rawlins Mystery, was also pretty forgettable for this same reason. This new novel lost any tension it might've had pretty early on, after you discover that there's not much danger. It's disappointing because I think that a Patty Hearst-style kidnapping would be ripe for an engaging story. The series needs to be shaken and spiced up a little bit, the way Mosley did in the great installment Cinnamon Kiss, where Easy had something to really fight for. But, Mosley's great writing, the highly-readable main character, and his motley cast of friends and colleagues introduced in previous novels, are enough to keep me going, despite the yawn-inducing plot. ...more
*2019 Re-read and my thoughts from my original review still stand*
This book has some flaws but it's always stuck with me since I first read it. ★★★1/2
*2019 Re-read and my thoughts from my original review still stand*
This book has some flaws but it's always stuck with me since I first read it. Like many of Mosley's books, it's got genuine soul to it, and a lasting emotional core. It's got graphic sex and lots of lube and anal play, so it's not for the prudish, but the adult material only serves as part of the main character's existensial emotional journey.
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Original review:
I've mentioned before that Walter Mosley is probably one of the most versatile authors and consistently puts out solid work in different genres. At the point when this book was released, Mosley was mostly known for his great crime writing and was carving out a cult niche with his thoughtful sci-fi novels. With this book, he did what many would never expect and delved into erotic fiction.
Mild-mannered New York City translator Cordell Carmel is living a good life with his long-term girlfriend Joelle. Until one day he walks into Joelle's apartment and catches her majorly getting her freak on with wanna-be jazz musician John Fry on her living room floor. Without being noticed by them, Cordell walks out, not knowing how to feel. Haunted by the look of something more than ecstasy on Joelle's face, and by the image of Johnny Fry's bright red condom, Cordell decides to keep it to himself, beginning an intense journey of sexual transformation and awakening.
Although this book is definitely not for the prudish, what sets it apart from other erotic stories I've seen is the urgency and emotion in the storytelling and the fact that Mosley creates an awesome character in Cordell, one of the best characters in his work. What struck me the most about Cordell (and what many men can relate to, even though they might not admit it), was his insecurities after witnessing his wife's infidelity, as well as his conflicting feelings about the situation. After catching them, he's not just angry, but he's also confused and horrified to discover that witnessing it has also given him a hard-on, and he's not sure why. He becomes obsessed with a bizarre porno movie about a submissive, cuckolded man that he begins identifies with. There's something so honest about his behavior that touched me deeply. This sexual honesty is something that I almost never see in men, especially those in the black community.
The book is sort of an existential journey for Cordell to heal his sexual insecurity. It is yet another book that I've read this year that reminds me of the criminally under-appreciated movie Eyes Wide Shut (my favorite of Kubrick's). There is lots of hot sex for those interested in that, but much of it is covered with an aura of sadness and melancholy. The book falls apart almost completely in the last third, and it was a bit unbelievable that after Cordell catches Joelle cheating, every woman in the book suddenly reveal themselves to be heavy freaks and try to have sex with him. This caused me to lower it's score a bit, but the Cordell character and the honest and frank look at sexual identity makes this a novel that stuck with me for a while....more
A recurring theme in Walter Mosley's prolific career is an existential reawakening of his main character. Whether it be jilted Cordell Carmell's sexuaA recurring theme in Walter Mosley's prolific career is an existential reawakening of his main character. Whether it be jilted Cordell Carmell's sexual awakening and subsequent odyssey in the erotic Killing Johnny Fry: A Sexistential Novel, 91-year-old Ptolemy reclaiming his life and purpose in The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, Socrates Fortlow's musings, or even Easy Rawlins's journey in the later books in his series. His new book with the awesome title, Debbie Doesn't Do It Anymore, is in the same vein.
After starring in hundreds of films, super porn-star Debbie Dare has been disillusioned for a long time and is starting to phone it in. Then, one day, not only does she unexpectedly pass out having the most intense orgasm of her life (and first in years) while filming a scene, she also returns home to discover that her husband and an underage girl are both dead in her bathtub after being electrocuted while filming an amateur sex tape. These events rock her world and sets into motion massive changes in her life.
I really enjoyed this one because of how sympathetic Debbie is as she struggles to figure out how to move on to a next chapter in her life while facing the repercussions her decisions will cause in her financial security, as well as in her relationships with her friends, family, and associates. The other thing that I loved was how non clichéd the relationship between Debbie and her late husband Theon actually was. Once you start to learn more about their past relationship, you discover an imperfect and sometimes raggedy marriage that was also non-judgmental, very supportive, and ultimately truly loving. You get a sense that they couldn't have been more different as people, but were perfect for each other when they needed it.
In the end, it's another great effort by one of my favorite authors and a very moving portrait of a strong heroine who refuses to be a victim and takes control of her life for the first time.
*This was an Advanced Reading Copy provided by NetGalley for an honest review*...more