A Little Yellow Dog
Written: Jan 20 '00 (Updated Jan 24 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: good characterization
Cons: difficult to follow all the characters
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| Rocketgirl's Full Review: Mosley, Walter |
I picked up this book because I was curious about what gave the book its name. I also wanted to try this author since I'm always looking for new authors, especially writers that have written several books. But... I'm not sure it was worth my effort.
First the good parts of the book: the characters are interesting and certainly different from anything I've read lately. The main character, Easy Rawlins, is a black man, who is in charge of building maintenance at an elementary school. He has been in trouble with the law in the past, but is trying to live a clean life now. Almost all the other main characters in this book are black people too, which is the other aspect that makes this story different from what I have read. The writing style is simple, there is lots of dialogue to move the story along, and there is a couple of murders to be solved. The identify of the killer was a complete surprise. The book is written in first-person, so the reader gets a good perspective of the motivations and character of Easy Rawlins.
But what I didn't like about the book: There are TOO MANY characters. I was often confused about what bad guy was who and how each one related to the others. This may not have been so difficult if I had read the Easy Rawlins series in order; then again, most series I have read give at least a couple of paragraphs to bring the reader who hasn't read them in order up to speed. This has not happened here; I often had difficulty telling who were Easy's friends and who were not. Another thing that I didn't like was that the story stops for several digressions into Easy's past, most seemingly not too relevant to the current story, other than perhaps to establish how he came to know the man he is talking to now. I don't think I really needed that information.
I'm not sure I'll be reading other books by this author, though I may give him another chance. Oh, by the way, it all started with this little yellow dog. A woman was afraid her husband was going to harm her little yellow dog, so she asked Easy to take care of it for a little while, while she did some errands. The husband ends up dead, the wife is missing, and Easy is stuck with the dog, who definitely does not like Easy.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
Rocketgirl
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 in Books |
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Member: Beth
Location: Tri-Cities, WA
Reviews written: 398
Trusted by: 224 members
About Me:
So many books, so little time.
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