The Man in My Basement…

By Walter Mosley

     Charles Blakey lives in a house that has been in his family for over a hundred years. He is an unemployed black man with very little drive or ambition and has taken out a mortgage on the ancestral home that he can't pay. His future seems unclear and the prospect of finding a job is dimmed by his questionable honesty. Charles is treading water and tiring fast.

     A white man, Anniston Bennet shows up at Blakeys door with an unusual request. He wants to rent the basement for a couple of months. At first Charles dismisses the idea but eventually succumbs to the generous offer tendered by the little man.

     Bennet provides his own jail cell to be constructed in the basement and commits himself to a self-imposed prison sentence for his perceived crimes against humanity and Charles becomes his jailer. Only the two men will be aware of this arrangement.

     Charles is forced to live a dual life maintaining a business as usual outward appearance while tending his duties as keeper and sometimes confidant of his prisoner.

     The experience proves to be an awakening for Charles. His conversations with Anniston Bennet become more and more philosophical, discussing morals and murder, the pain of slavery and the overwhelming responsibility of freedom and opening his eyes to the dilemmas of mankind and to human failings. Sometimes the encounters trigger depression or anger and other times they provoke feelings of optimism, but they're always intense.

     The ending of the story is far from utopian but it's definitely in step with the rest of the chronicle.

     Normally I use my shelf-space here to review mystery novels but this book sort of snuck up on me. I've been a Walter Mosley fan for a while, enjoying his Easy Rawlins mystery series but this Mosley offering is considerably different.

     The writing is still unmistakably Mosley but the subject is so much more urgent and important. To say that this book is unusual is quite an understatement. I've never read anything quite like it. It's every bit as riveting and compelling as any mystery I've ever read and carries much more of a message.

     This book is definitely in a class of its own and it screams to be read.