The Awkward Black Man: Stories

by Walter Mosley

Overview

A new collection of short fiction from the Edgar Award-winning author of Devil in a Blue Dress and Trouble is What I Do.

With his extraordinary fiction and gripping television writing, Walter Mosley has proven himself a master of narrative tension. The Awkward Black Man collects seventeen of Mosley’s most accomplished short stories to showcase the full range of his remarkable talent. Touching, contemplative, and always surprising, these stories introduce an array of imperfect characters—awkward, self-defeating, elf-involved, or just plain odd.

In The Awkward Black Man, Mosley overturns the stereotypes that corral black male characters and paints subtle, powerful portraits of unique individuals. In "The Good News Is," a man’s insecurity about his weight gives way to illness and a loneliness so intense that he’d do anything for a little human comfort. "Pet Fly," previously published in the New Yorker, follows a man working as a mailroom clerk—a solitary job for which he is overqualified—and the unforeseen repercussions he endures when he attempts to forge a new connection. And "Almost Alyce" chronicles failed loves, family loss, alcoholism, and a Zen approach to the art of begging that proves surprisingly effective.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780802156860
Publisher:	Grove/Atlantic, Inc.
Publication date:	09/15/2020
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	60,673
File size:	1 MB

About the Author

Walter Mosley is the New York Times author of more than fifty novels in several series, most notably fourteen Easy Rawlins mysteries, several of which have been made into major motion pictures. In 2020 he was a recipient of a lifetime achievement award from the Los Angeles Times Book Prize and from the National Book Foundation. In 2013, he was inducted into the New York State Writers Hall of Fame, and he is the winner of numerous awards, including an Edgar Award, O. Henry Award, the Mystery Writers of Americas Grand Master Award, PEN Americas Lifetime Achievement Award, a Grammy Award, and and several NAACP Image Awards. His work has been translated into twenty-five languages.
Walter Mosley (b. 1952) is the author of the bestselling mystery series featuring Easy Rawlins, as well as numerous other works, from literary fiction and science fiction to a young adult novel and political monographs. His short fiction has been widely published, and his nonfiction has appeared in the New York Times Magazine and the Nation, among other publications. Mosley is the winner of numerous awards, including an O. Henry Award, the Anisfield-Wolf Book Award, a Grammy, and PEN America’s Lifetime Achievement Award. He lives in New York City. 

Hometown:

New York, New York

Date of Birth:

January 12, 1952

Place of Birth:

Los Angeles, California

Education:

B.A., Johnson State College

Website:

http://www.waltermosley.com

Editorial Reviews

Praise for Walter Mosley:

“When reviewing a book by Walter Mosley, it’s hard not to simply quote all the great lines. There are so many of them. You want to share the pleasures of Mosley’s jazz-inflected dialogue and the moody, descriptive passages reminiscent of Raymond Chandler at his best.”― Washington Post, on Down the River Unto the Sea

“A daring, beautifully wrought story that incorporates elements of allegory, meditative reflection and the lilt of lyric tragedy. ”― Los Angeles Times, on The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey

“With Mosley, there’s always the surprise factor―a cutting image or a bracing line of dialogue.”― New York Times Book Review, on And Sometimes I Wonder About You

“Mosley’s invigorating, staccato prose and understanding of racial, moral and social subtleties are in full force.”― Seattle Times, on Known to Evil

“Mosley is the Gogol of the African-American working class―the chronicler par excellence of the tragic and the absurd.”― Vibe

“[Mosley] has a special talent for touching upon these sticky questions of evil and responsibility without getting stuck in them.”― New Yorker

From the Publisher

04/01/2020

This volume gathers 17 stories by Mosley, some never before published, others having appeared in venues like The New Yorker, all providing portraits of remarkable black characters embedded in life's complications. Note that Mosley is not just a Mystery Writers of America Grand Master but an O. Henry Award winner whose literary tour de force, John Woman, was long-listed for the 2019 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction.

Library Journal

Mirron Willis, having narrated several Walter Mosley audiobooks, has an experienced grasp of the author's cadence and language. This familiarity, as well as Willis's prudent pronunciation, makes for a confident and compelling reading of Mosley stories. Like Mosley's novels, these tales are digressive and imaginative, dealing with, among other things, a fly's friendship, the sexual prowess of superheroes, and the transmigration of the human soul. But if there is any thread that connects this collection, it is Mosley's explorations of aging and death. We are all just "a hair's breadth from finality," one character reminds us. But don't let the subject matter put you off. Thanks to Willis's upbeat delivery—check out his voicing of Billy the Texan—and Mosley's dabs of surrealistic relief (a plastic surgeon's blind date leads to a metaphysical breakthrough; a company delivers messages from the dead), this quirky audiobook always entertains. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2020 - AudioFile

Mirron Willis, having narrated several Walter Mosley audiobooks, has an experienced grasp of the author's cadence and language. This familiarity, as well as Willis's prudent pronunciation, makes for a confident and compelling reading of Mosley stories. Like Mosley's novels, these tales are digressive and imaginative, dealing with, among other things, a fly's friendship, the sexual prowess of superheroes, and the transmigration of the human soul. But if there is any thread that connects this collection, it is Mosley's explorations of aging and death. We are all just "a hair's breadth from finality," one character reminds us. But don't let the subject matter put you off. Thanks to Willis's upbeat delivery—check out his voicing of Billy the Texan—and Mosley's dabs of surrealistic relief (a plastic surgeon's blind date leads to a metaphysical breakthrough; a company delivers messages from the dead), this quirky audiobook always entertains. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine

DECEMBER 2020 - AudioFile