Bad Boy Brawly Brown Book

Walter Mosley is doing something very interesting. Under the guise of writing a series of private eye novels (they really are not) he is chronicling what African-American life was like in important times in America's recent past. This book examines a group somewhat like the Black Panthers and their deeds and misdeeds. The Easy Rawlins character is an outsider to the group with a deep understanding of African-American culture and the dominant culture that wants to keep Rawlins and those who look like him in the place that white society has allowed for them.

It is helpful to have Rawlins as a knowledgeable semi-outsider to guide readers through the three words of this story and help whiteys like me understand what drives them. The book is flawed because it is not all that interesting as a mystery and takes too long to get to its conclusion. I also grew weary of some of Mosley's stylistic mannerisms. Still, the book was fresh in many ways, informative, insightful, and mostly very readable. It is a pleasure to discover what Mosley is doing in this series of books.