The Man in My Basement: A Novel

excruciating:
Every fine novelist experiments, and here Mosley tries his hand at Dostoevski's Underground Man or Camus's Stranger. The protagonist, Charles ("not Charlie!") is merely a pompous, verbose, drunken windbag whose "philosophy" is trite barroom cynicism. He muses endlessly about "Evil" (which seems to be Rich People) and about his only other topic, himself. The basement cage premise sounds more interesting than what Mosley actually does with it. Don't want to give away the ending, but I waited in vain for the twist that would repay the time wasted. Some growth, understanding, something. I longed for Easy or Fearless, whose actions showed Mosley's real understanding of life. Mosley knows far more than he can verbalize. This book is like watching a great actor try to sing and dance.

This novel makes you think::
"The Man In My Basement" by Walter Mosley is wonderful. First of all Mosley writes in a style that just grabs you from the opening sentence and pulls you along until the final sentence. The rawness of his characters alone is interesting enough to keep you reading. Add in an intriguing story line, and a great cast of characters, and you have a recipe for success. The plot of this book, (as you can read about in a lot of other reviews), is very different. While reading you are always pondering the different things that are going on. At the end of the book I was left thinking deeply about the different things that happened throughout the book. For a piece of fiction to do this, that is something indeed special. It feels as if you were taught a lesson, and you didn't even know it. Very deep. Do yourself a favor, and give this one a read. You should enjoy it. Happy Reading!

Mosely sets up shop inside the reader's head.. and then tweaks it.:
Many points in this novel stood out for me because I could draw parallels between my life and Charles Dodd-Blakey's. Despite our societal and ethnic differences, both of us are looked down upon by other members of society for what we lack, rather than appreciated for the people we are. This shared trait between the character and myself really took it home for me. While studying all types of literature, particularily African, the ties to Mr. Dodd-Blakey's family history, as well as Anniston Bennett's work history were insightful and helpful. I believe this book illustrates that none of the characters had power, despite their thoughts to the contrary. I was surprised by the end, disappointed, disturbed, enlightened and in a strange way, redeemed.

High concept, low substance:
This book set up an interesting situation, but I didn't feel it was resolved well. There are many unanswered questions. The ending is much too neat. I don't quite see how Charles becomes so transformed by this experience. I don't quite understand all the mind games his prisoner perpetrates. I never really understood why his prisoner chose to be imprisoned. He rambles on about many things he has done, but the reality of the life he speaks of seems difficult to translate into any kind of practical day to day. Thankfully, it is a fast, short read. I have enjoyed the Easy Rawlins books so much. I understand the need of a prolific author to experiment, as another reviewer pointed out, but this is nowhere near as engaging as the other works by Mosley that I have read.

A quick, suspenseful, mind-provoking read:
I dare you to put this book down before finishing it! Compelling characters in an unusual story. Far better than what passes for popular fiction on most of the best-seller list. Bizarre? That is probably a little too strong. Different? Definitely! Some have compared to The Stranger by Camus, but a more apt comparison might be to The Quiet American by Graham Greene, which explores somewhat similar themes of doing bad by trying to do good. Both books exemplify one of my favorite maxims, "You can't get something clean without getting something else dirty."