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by: Walter Mosley
List Price: $13.95Amazon.com's Price: $11.16 You Save: $2.79 (20%)Prices subject to change. Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780316159319
ISBN: 031615931X
Label: Back Bay Books
Manufacturer: Back Bay Books
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 272
Publication Date: February 02, 2005
Publisher: Back Bay Books
Sales Rank: 88924
Studio: Back Bay Books
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Editorial Review:
Product Description:
Hailed as a masterpiece--the finest work yet by an American novelist of the first rank--THE MAN IN MY BASEMENT tells the story of a young black man who can't find a job, drinks too much, and, worst of all, stands to lose the beautiful home that's belonged to his family for generations. All that changes, however, when a stranger offers $50,000 to rent out the young man's basement, and soon the two men are drawn together into circumstances so bizarre as to be almost beyond imagination.
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - This novel makes you think:
"The Man In My Basement" by Walter Mosley is wonderful.
First of all Mosley writes in a style that just grabs you from the opening sentence and pulls you along until the final sentence. The rawness of his characters alone is interesting enough to keep you reading. Add in an intriguing story line, and a great cast of characters, and you have a recipe for success.
The plot of this book, (as you can read about in a lot of other reviews), is very different. While reading ... Read More
Rating:  - High concept, low substance
This book set up an interesting situation, but I didn't feel it was resolved well. There are many unanswered questions. The ending is much too neat. I don't quite see how Charles becomes so transformed by this experience. I don't quite understand all the mind games his prisoner perpetrates. I never really understood why his prisoner chose to be imprisoned. He rambles on about many things he has done, but the reality of the life he speaks of seems difficult to translate into any kind of practical ... Read More
Rating: - A quick, suspenseful, mind-provoking read
I dare you to put this book down before finishing it! Compelling characters in an unusual story. Far better than what passes for popular fiction on most of the best-seller list. Bizarre? That is probably a little too strong. Different? Definitely!
Some have compared to The Stranger by Camus, but a more apt comparison might be to The Quiet American by Graham Greene, which explores somewhat similar themes of doing bad by trying to do good. Both books exemplify one of my favorite maxims, "You ... Read More
Rating: - Mosely sets up shop inside the reader's head.. and then tweaks it.
Many points in this novel stood out for me because I could draw parallels between my life and Charles Dodd-Blakey's. Despite our societal and ethnic differences, both of us are looked down upon by other members of society for what we lack, rather than appreciated for the people we are. This shared trait between the character and myself really took it home for me.
While studying all types of literature, particularily African, the ties to Mr. Dodd-Blakey's family history, as well as Anniston ... Read More
Rating:  - excruciating
Every fine novelist experiments, and here Mosley tries his hand at Dostoevski's Underground Man or Camus's Stranger. The protagonist, Charles ("not Charlie!") is merely a pompous, verbose, drunken windbag whose "philosophy" is trite barroom cynicism. He muses endlessly about "Evil" (which seems to be Rich People) and about his only other topic, himself. The basement cage premise sounds more interesting than what Mosley actually does with it. Don't want to give away the ending, but I waited in vain for the ... Read More
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