'Always Outnunbered,Always Ougunned'
I'm pleased to hear that I'm not the only one who finds the
non-Rowlins novels by Mosley superior to what he did in that
series. Do not misunderstand me: Mosley is one of the good
HB/Noir writers, but I always had the feeling he could do
better and also that the interest of the Rowlins novels was
more as period documents about Black people's recent past,
than as mystery/crime works. I recently red "Always.." and I
must admit I really enjoyed it, much more than the Rowlins
saga. The mosaic of events all lived by Socrates Fortlow, the
old released convict, definitely adds something valuable to
the purely "realistic" description of the life of poor people
in Watts. Sure, Socrates is a hard-boiled character deep
inside, but the novel is not totally so, and it does not
matter if it belongs to the outskirts of the genre: it's a
very good novel, of any genre, by itself. The progression of
Socrate's self-imposed redemption in that book is a real
achievement. There is something magic in that assembly of
small episodes and their continuity (most of which were first
published as short novels). IMHO: a great book.
E.Borgers Hard-boiled Mysteries http://www.geocities.com/Athens/6384
Daniel Sevitt <
DANIELSE@Amdocs.com>: does anybody know if there are
any more Rawlins books planned? Despite coming to Mosley
through this series I find the non-Rawlins books even more
interesting. I finally caught up with the Always Outnumbered,
Always Outgunned TV movie on Israeli cable the other
week.
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