The Man in My Basement
by:
Walter Mosley (author)
Hailed as a masterpiece-the finest work yet by an American novelist of the first rank-The Man in My Basement tells the story of Charles Blakey, a young black man who can't find a job, drinks too much, and, worst of all, stands to lose the beautiful home that has belonged to his family for...
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Hailed as a masterpiece-the finest work yet by an American novelist of the first rank-The Man in My Basement tells the story of Charles Blakey, a young black man who can't find a job, drinks too much, and, worst of all, stands to lose the beautiful home that has belonged to his family for generations. But Charles's fortunes take an odd turn when a stranger offers nearly $50,000 to rent out Charles's basement-and soon, as the boarder transforms the basement into a prison cell, Charles finds himself drawn into circumstances almost unimaginably bizarre and profoundly unsettling.
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Format: paperback
ISBN:
9780316159319 (031615931X)
ASIN: 031615931X
Publish date: February 2nd 2005
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Pages no: 272
Edition language: English
Category:
Literature,
Cultural,
Book Club,
American,
Literary Fiction,
Adult,
African American,
Mystery,
Contemporary,
Thriller,
Mystery Thriller,
Crime
An African American young man, Charles Blakey, who comes from an old Long Island Family dating back before the Revolution, finds he's broke and takes a boarder into his basement, a white man, Anniston Bennet, who wished to be jailed in the basement to atone for his sins. Or something like that. They...
I certainly enjoyed this, but I'm not sure what to think, other than this story provokes a good deal of thought once it's all over. The premise is great, the execution is thorough and satisfying. I'm not a book club guy, but this would be a great book for discussion.
Good read. Made you keep reading to find out why he was in there.
Walter Mosley was one of the keynote authors at last week's NCIBA conference for independent book stores. I grabbed this book because I wanted to read something by him before the conference. Wow - what an amazing author! Although Mosley is best known as a creator of the Easy Rawlins mystery seri...
Mosley is best known for his detective fiction (also good), but this is more a straightforward philosophical quest into who we are as people and a nation. He hits the troubled relationship between African Americans and white America right on the head, but this is more than a story of racial issues. ...
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