ALWAYS OUTNUMBERED, ALWAYS OUTGUNNED

Rating:
Summary: Loved the book...4 1/2 stars..Mosley is great.
Review: Walter Mosley goes beyond Easy Rawlins with Socrates Fortlow an ex-offender, almost streetperson trying to make it in Watts. You can see and feel the anger of Socrates when people sometimes carelessly, sometimes callously disregard and disrespect him because he's old, poor, Black and sometimes just a little crazy. This series of stories made me rethink my own responses to the so called streetpeople I've worked with in a professional capacity with care and understanding of their feelings but calculatingly avoided otherwise. Socrates had his own moral code, his own sense of justice and though he didn't see himself as such, he was a good man.

Rating:
Summary: I LOVED IT!
Review: SEEN THE MOVIE FIRST, MY 10 YR. OLD SON AND I WERE IMPRESSED BY HOW HE WAS A "THINKING MAN". I HAVE BEEN TELLING MY SON TO BE A "THINKING MAN" LIKE HIM, INSTEAD OF GETTING ANGRY AND LASHING OUT. ITS THE FIRST FICTION BOOK I HAVE READ IN ALONG TIME, LOOKING FORWARD TO READING MORE OF WALTER MOSLEY.

Rating:
Summary: Violent Vignettes Sliced From Life
Review: I'll keep it very brief this time. BUY THIS BOOK! It's that simple. If you like great writing, exceptionally realized characters, suspense that carries you along like a surfer on a wave, snappy dialogue, and stories that make you think, BUY THIS BOOK. That's all. BUY THIS BOOK!

Rating:
Summary: Mouse with a conscience.
Review: This is an incredibly well written work about redemption. It actually puts you in the head of a Black man in modern day (North) American culture. I've put it on my book shelf right along side of Henry Dumas and Richard Wright. Damn, Mosley is good! I thought I had a jones for the Easy Rawlins series... I got a bigger jones for Socrates Fortlow. This is a must read for every African American man on the planet. If other folks want to hang with this stupendous read...well okay.

Rating:
Summary: Self-prescribed tough love in Watts
Review: The stories together almost add up to an episodic novel. A minimum editorial labor could have pruned the explanations that are unnecessary when the stories are compiled. The reader across the bay from me was too harsh with ALWAYS PREDICTABLE, ALWAYS MANIPULATIVE-- it's OFTEN PREDICTABLE, OFTEN MANIPULATIVE. Mosley (seemingly effortlessly) creates believable characters and believable, interesting plots, and shows something of how difficult it is for ghetto dwellers to get and hold jobs and survive amidst racism and both black and white male violence.

Rating:
Summary: Socrates stands true to his name.
Review: This is the best book I've ever read. If Mosley does any better I guess I'll have to repeat myself.

Rating:
Summary: Soft Socco touches my heart
Review: Socco really touches my heart with his hard-soft-split ways of being. I enjoyed very much reading Mosleys previous books about Easy Rawlins. But Easy never became my friend - he was always very distant, untouchable, hard to get to know and not very sympathetic. Socrates is a sad lovely personality that I want to know more about. I like the use of dialogue and expressions and the simple appreciation of life from the viewpoint of the ex-con. Please Mosley, write some more...

Rating:
Summary: Decent, but: "Always Predictable....Always Manipulative.."
Review: Along with the simmerin', well-seasoned hoppin'-john, freshbaked, butter-lathered cornbread and fried porkchops (blanketed with hot, just-cooked, greasy onions), can anyone else smell a sequel comin' `round the corner? Or is it just me? The sequel-odor is quite strong and none too subtle. But not necessarily offensive...A deliberate "hello", formal introduction to a new (anti) hero. Goodbye "Easy"? One hopes that would not be the case. "Always Outgunned..." (I'm not going to spellout the entire title) was - is - a well-written book, with a seamless (formulaic?) style. Maybe a bit too smooth and predictable, relative to Mosley's earlier works, featuring the "Easy Rawlins" character. Characters are fleshed-out pretty well and there's enough going on to snag the reader's interest - entertaining him/her for a while...but one definitely can predict where the protagonist is headed. A highly manipulative piece of work...Would make a good teleplay. There's the (obligatory?) brush with romance and "true reform". There's the expected do-gooder, band-of-old-guys-take-back-neighborhood, adopt-a-kid bits as well. Nice. Sweet. Good, technical job here, but (again) Predictable. Not as challenging, visceral or as fun as Mosley's earlier works (forget the experimental, unpleasant, confused "RL's Dreams"), but a worthy addition nonetheless to one building a "Mosley Library". As a matter of fact, the book seems especially written to appease (comfort?) the loyal fans of the author, holding their hands while uttering frequent "there-theres" as they get used to the idea of a New Guy On the Block, perhaps a tad forlorn at their "loss" of "Easy". But I ask: Is Mosley headed towards a rut? If one is a "Mosley Nut" (you know who you are), then I'd say: "Buy the slick-looking, hardcover version of this book, read it twice and put it on the shelf." SP

Rating:
Summary: Mosley just gets better and better
Review: I enjoyed this collection of stories about the remarkable Socrates Fortlow as much as any book I've read in the past several years. The stories are more like chapters in a novel, each building on the prior story, yet each a classic short story that could stand alone. Mosley's use of dialogue and metaphor is simply unparalleled; he brings his protaganists alive like no one else. Readers who have enjoyed the Easy Rawlins series will surely love this book as well. I recommend this book wholeheartedly.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing characters
Review: Mosley always brings new perceptions and insight to his characters that I had never really thought of or known about before. The most wonderful thing about his writing is that, though the characters are new and fresh and interesting, they have a certain universality that makes them ring true and that teach and give new insight about human nature and human needs to the reader