Author: Walter MosleyGenre: Mystery, Series #1Published: 1990Personal Rating: 3/5Yearly Count: 15
Ezekiel (Easy) Rawlins is a young, black veteran living in Los Angeles during the late 1940's. He owns his home, but suddenly finds himself without a job - making paying his mortgage a problem. Without much effort, Easy finds employment by accepting a job from a white man to locate a French woman who has connections to a heartsick gangster. Easy winds up in a heap of trouble.
This book started out as a 4/5. It was interesting getting to know and understand Easy, but it started going down hill towards the middle of the book. Throughout, there was a lot of racial slurs and disrespect creating a very gritty and uncomfortable feeling. That began to wear me down and turned my enjoyment into dislike. Also, I didn't anticipate the s*x scenes and found them to be crass. Blah. I really wanted this to be good. At some point, I may give the second one a try, but I'm not too enthused at the moment.
BTW ~ This was made into a movie starring Denzel Washington as Easy.
Sometimes I'm too quick to comment without reading an entire post. I was going to ask if this was a movie since the title sounds familiar. Duh. Not big on crass either--just not sure it's necessary.
ReplyDeleteSo sad that it started out with a promise of 4/5 and then dropped. I wonder how people feel about the movie. I love Denzel.
ReplyDeleteTrish ~ I'm sure. It's not necessary. :)
ReplyDeleteBooklogged ~ Amazon states that the movie "never found the audience it deserved".
and Don Cheadle! My husband and I saw this movie when it came out and really liked it. It was the first time seeing Cheadle and he was so good and memorable to us. I remember really enjoying it.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure I read the book after but don't remember anything about it. There are other books by Mosley, with colours in the titles, but I haven't read them either.
I've got one of Mosley's books, so I was hoping this one would be better.
ReplyDeleteRaidergirl3 ~ Okay, I'll put it on the list of books to movies that I should watch. No promises that I'll like it any better than the book, but I'll give it a try - sometime. :)
ReplyDeleteBermudaonion ~ I read one other Mosley - The Man in My Basement. I rated it lower than this one. I don't think I'm a fan of his writing. Oh well. Ya don't know until you try.
I've heard lots of stuff about this author but haven't read anything by him yet. Looks like I might wait a bit longer.
ReplyDeleteSamantha.1020 ~ If you start with a standalone, you may have a better experience than I did. :)
ReplyDelete