Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Man in My Basement: A Novel by Walter Mosley ISBN: 0-316-57082-6 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: 05 January, 2004 Format: Hardcover Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $22.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.33 (24 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Black and white, smoke and mirrors
Comment: This book was my first excursion into the prose of Walter Mosley, and I found it good. His style is punchy and direct. No flowery prose or ponderous passages here, just the direct emotions and impressions and events, which make for a solid impact on the reader. The story is both simple and complex: the narrator, who is black, is pretty much down, but not yet out. He clings to a bit of family pride even though he's been beaten down over the years by his awful uncle, who never lost an opportunity to tell him how utterly worthless he was. And circumstances and misdemeanors have taken their toll on him too. But then, down to his last pennies, he meets a bizarre little white man who simply rings the front door bell and expresses a burning desire to "live" in his basement for the summer, and to pay handsomely for the privilege of being imprisoned there.
The two characters mirror their respective self-imposed imprisonments, but the wonder of the story is in the telling.
This is a quick and a catchy read and will leave you thinking.
Rating: 5
Summary: BASEMENT TENANT LEAVES READERS ON THE EDGE OF OUR SEATS
Comment: I received Mr. Mosley's recent novel (Man in My Basement) to do a review for Booking Matters Magazine. I was actually standing in the post office Christmas holiday lines when I received the novel and I immediately started reading it, initially to pass the time while waiting in a very long line. The storyline grabbed me from page one and didn't let me go until the very last page. The book itself is small in size...but has left me thirsty for more by Mr. Mosley. There are many authors out there now who can really write...I'd like to add that Mr. Mosley can not only write..but can tell a story that leaves any reader in deep thought. The Man in my Basement (while fiction) will challenge the reader to look at the issue of "guilt" and how powerful it can be in a person's life. The main characters were some I will NEVER forget and I actually even read parts of the story to my husband and we've discussed the book (and I am the one who really read it). Mr. Mosley, I do hope you check on line reviews because I want you to know that you have fans out here who absolutely adore your work. You really have set another standard for authors. The Man in My Basement is a very powerful, thought provoking, thought challenging novel that is highly recommended to ALL. This story will stay with me for a very long time. And as stated in my title of this review...this novel leaves you...ON THE EDGE OF YOUR SEAT! Buy it and read it today!!!!
Rating: 4
Summary: Who's The Man?
Comment: The title of Walter Mosley's latest novel is *The Man In My Basement* and, like the book itself, can be interpreted in many different ways.
Is it simply, literally, about a man who wants to rent out a stranger's basement for two months?
Is it a tale of racial conflict? The renter is white; the homeowner is black. Should we hear quotation marks around "The Man," as in the stereotypical white oppressor?
Or is it one person's journey from perpetual adolescence into a grudging and painful childhood? Mosley's protagonist goes into that basement a child and finally emerges a man.
The owner of the basement is Charles Blakey. He is, by most ways of looking at things, a loser. He is unemployed, an inveterate liar, an unhealthy drinker and a college dropout with little or no future. His only asset is his old and sturdy house -- a home that has been in his family for seven generations.
Enter Anniston Bennet, a wealthy white suburbanite who makes Blakey a tempting offer: In exchange for allowing him to live in Blakey's cellar during July and August, Bennet will pay him nearly fifty thousand dollars cash. Charles, who has mortgaged his family's legacy and is behind on the payments, eventually decides to accept.
And with that choice, both Blakey and the reader are drawn into a fascinating character study, a psychological conflict between two apparent opposites.
I say "apparent" because Mosley chooses to be ambiguous even when the lines seem clearly drawn. Is it a question of Good versus Evil? Rich against Poor? Black against White? There really is no way to be sure.
The ambiguity also extends to the novel's blurred sense of time. It wasn't until more than halfway through the book that I could be reasonably certain of what decade in which the story is set.
It is perhaps appropriate; Mosley first gained attention with a series of mystery novels, such as *Devil In A Blue Dress*. *Basement* may be considered a kind of mystery as well but one without "suspects" or "clues." It is fiction of a most modern kind, defying convention and categorization with every page.
The journey this novel takes is a difficult one, although its conclusion is as satisfying as it is unexpected. I recommend *The Man In My Basement* as an important reading experience.
 |
Title: Fear Itself: A Fearless Jones Novel by Walter Mosley ISBN: 0316591122 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: July, 2003 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
 |
Title: The Havana Room by Colin Harrison ISBN: 0374299862 Publisher: Farrar Straus & Giroux Pub. Date: 15 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.00 |
 |
Title: Mr. Paradise : A Novel by Elmore Leonard ISBN: 0060083956 Publisher: William Morrow Pub. Date: 13 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $25.95 |
 |
Title: Little Scarlet: An Easy Rawlins Mystery by Walter Mosley ISBN: 0316073032 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: 05 July, 2004 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
 |
Title: Absolute Friends by John le Carre ISBN: 0316000647 Publisher: Little Brown & Company Pub. Date: 12 January, 2004 List Price(USD): $26.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
