Gone fishin'

by Walter Mosley

Hardcover, 1996

Status

Available

Publication

Baltimore,MD : Black Classic Press, 1996.

Description

Houston, 1939. A nineteen-year-old Easy Rawlins and his friend, the dangerous Raymond ?Mouse? Alexander, are about to take the ride of a lifetime - into a mysterious bayou world of voodoo, sex, revenge and death that will both change and link their destinies for ever. The first book Walter Mosley wrote, Gone Fishin' introduces us to the world of Easy and Mouse and shows us the basis of their friendship - quite literally a matter of life or death. Walter Mosley is a major writer of his time - the promise of genius is clear to see in Gone Fishin'.

Media reviews

Mosley's sixth Easy Rawlins novel is the chronological first--and less mystery or crime fiction than a powerfully raw, lyrical coming-of-age story. Here is 19-year-old Easy in 1939 before his war experiences and before his departure from Houston for L.A.

User reviews

LibraryThing member laytonwoman3rd
This is a prequel to the Easy Rawlins series, in which we meet Easy and his friend Mouse as quite young men. Mouse, about to be married to Etta Mae, recruits Easy to drive him back to his home turf in the bayous to claim what he feels is rightfully his of his Mama's property from his miserable
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no-good step-daddy. As you can imagine, this doesn't go altogether well. There's death and black magic and hot love, and we learn a lot about why Mouse is who he is. This is a heck of a good story, but I almost wish Mosley hadn't told it to us. Mouse works so well as Easy's mysterious alter-ego---the man with no inhibitions and very few scruples who can do the things Easy will not do. Hawk to his Spenser. Knowing nothing about him would seem to work better than learning his back story and feeling some sympathy. HOWEVER, Mosley may have been up to something he felt necessary before carrying the series forward; I have read [Bad Boy Brawly Brown], and I know that Mouse dies, or at least Easy believes him to be dead, so the history may turn out to matter going forward.
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LibraryThing member datrappert
I didn't find this very compelling. I haven't read any of the other Easy Rawlins novels--I only saw the movie with Denzel Washington--so this sort of background coming of age story was mostly interesting for the author's observations of life for black Americans during that pre-war period. The plot,
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concerning the crazy Mouse, wasn't that interesting at all, nor were Easy's encounters with the oddball characters the novel is full of. Things were made worse by Paul Winfield's muddled narration, which was not of the crystal clear quality I'm used to from first-class audiobooks. Not recommended.
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Language

Barcode

4526
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