Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned

Rating:
Summary: Profound, moving
Review: I'd never heard of Walter Mosley and had not come to this book via the Easy Rawlins series. Rather, I saw it on a remainders table, bought it on impulse, gulped it down in two sittings. A book about black men and the ache to do something worthwhile against the odds of real life in South Central. Two days after I read the book I saw the movie adaptation with the inimitable Laurence Fishburne. A wonderful movie. But the book is better. Socrates Fortlow is a true original, and I loved him.

Rating:
Summary: Violent Vignettes Sliced From Life
Review: I'll keep it very brief this time. BUY THIS BOOK! It's that simple. If you like great writing, exceptionally realized characters, suspense that carries you along like a surfer on a wave, snappy dialogue, and stories that make you think, BUY THIS BOOK. That's all. BUY THIS BOOK!

Rating:
Summary: A good, gritty book about a not-so-good, gritty world
Review: I'm new to Mosley and haven't read any of his detective novels, but I thoroughly enjoyed this quick, easy read. Each chapter told a poignant story, and though they don't come together as in a novel, they do tie together in a meaningful way. Many of the stories are mean and bittersweet, but they are ultimately honest and hopeful, and you can you feel the central character's, Socrates Fortlow's, often-conflicted emotions in dealing with a panolopy of hard choices and various (brought on often by an earlier life of crime) injustices, as well as his incredible determination to build a life out of less than nothing. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: CAPTIVATING STORIES
Review: I've found a hero--Socrates! The stories are lessons in love, friendship, community, integrity, redemption, and just plain ole survival. They will make you laugh one minute and cry the next. This book is one enjoyabe read. I highly recommend it.

Rating:
Summary: A stunning, absorbing collection
Review: I've read and enjoyed the Easy Rawlins mysteries, but I Mosely's latest--a linked collection of stories about an ex-con/Knight Errant in Watts--firmly cements him (in my mind at least) as of one of the greats. I haven't been this absorbed by a character (or admired such economy of language) since I picked up my first Chandler novel years ago. In a recent interview in Time Out New York, Mosely hinted that he had originally planned to do 47 Socrates Fortlow stories, instead of just the dozen or so that appear in Always Outnumbered. Damn, would I kill to read the rest.

Rating:
Summary: a great work of art
Review: Like many other readers who have read and loved this book and its protagonist, Socrates Fortlow, I too was deeply moved by Walter Mosely's amazing book. Too few books "ring true" in the way that this one does. Too few books grapple with the most important issues, the biggest questions while, at the same time, weaving a story that the reader can't set down . . .Mosely does all of the above and much more. I am deeply appreciative of his wonderful contribution to the literature of our times. This book will outlive all of us . . . and it should!

Rating:
Summary: A man of many seasons.
Review: Meet Socrates Fortlow, a man who served years of prison time for the deaths and rape of a young couple, getting out of prison and trying to adjust to life on the outside as well as trying to come to terms with the life he led before and during his incarceration. During this fourteen short story run, the supporting cast are just as strong as they are flawed, much like Socrates himself. It was this character trait that kept me reading until the end. Socrates lived a hard life and he paid the price for it, however, throughout this book, his anger and resentment has made him not only a heroic figure, but a tragic one as well. Where else can you come across a man that will put together a plan to run a drug dealer out of his neighborhood, and the next story will have him standing in the face of one of his friends and tell him that he will stab him in the back to get with his wife and kids if he doesn't straighten up and fly right? It's these complex traits that make Mr. Fortlow such a facinating character, and this a facinating book.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing characters
Review: Mosley always brings new perceptions and insight to his characters that I had never really thought of or known about before. The most wonderful thing about his writing is that, though the characters are new and fresh and interesting, they have a certain universality that makes them ring true and that teach and give new insight about human nature and human needs to the reader

Rating:
Summary: suspense with strong character development. Great book.
Review: Mosley has a great knack for chatacter development and paints a plot that makes it hard o put this story down. Centered in L.A. with a pulp and "noire" touch, this is a must read and I can't wait to delve into Mosley's other works.

Rating:
Summary: Staccato stories turn to subtle variations on a theme.
Review: Mosley proves himself to be a very good writer who can develop characters with the likes of Faulkner and O'Connor with his collection of stories about Socrates Fortlow. Whereas the beginning is tough for those of us who expected a novel, the individual stories add up to a sum greater than most novels. Socrates Fortlow comes alive in the pages like no other chararacter in my memory has.