Very disappointing stories that failed to engage, and lack the style Mosley has been known for. Having read "John Woman" and "Odyssey" among other of his novels I assumed the characters and plots would be unique. As others that are familiar with Walter's books have stated, these are character studies and poor ones at that. Short story writing is a unique skill; I think it best he sticks with novels. ( )

Walter Mosley is best known for his mysteries, especially Easy Rawlins the famed L.A. detective. He is a master of noir, but I am more certain that readers a hundred years in the future will be reading The Awkward Black Man, his recent collection of short stories than even “Devil in a Blue Dress.”

There are seventeen short stories in this collection and there is an awkward Black man in each one of them. The stories are rich in empathy and human understanding. In one story, a man dies hating another man so much that he awakes to discover himself haunting the man he hated, but the haunting is certainly harder on him than on the man he haunted. Another story tells of a man with tremendous promise who ends up homeless and begging on the street, but there is so much more to him that on the surface.

More than what is on the surface seems to be the thread uniting these stories. The men sometimes seem very simple on the surface but are much more complex.

These stories are subtle. A man is told “People are so afraid of dying that they don’t even live the little bit of life they have,” so he smokes a cigarette on a bet. From that small action, reactions reverberate through the rest of his life. In another, you think you’re reading a romance and suddenly it’s a sci-fi revolution. One of the more fascinating and heartbreaking is “After the Storm” when a man decides he simply cannot leave his apartment, frightened of all the dangers of modern life. But somehow rather than seeing him as an agoraphobe, the world decides he is a new prophet, but that just makes him depressed.

I loved The Awkward Black Man. I like short stories and Mosley is one of the best. In a sentence or two, he creates an entire world. His stories are rich and complex. While the plots vary widely, they are all empathetic and in love with humanity. This is why when I see a new Walter Mosley book, I get excited.

I received an e-galley of The Awkward Black Man from the publisher through Edelweiss

The Awkward Black Man at Grove Atlantic
Walter Mosley author site

https://tonstantweaderreviews.wordpress.com/2020/10/11/9780802149565/ ( )

In these 17 short stories, Mosley turns his attention to a series of stories involving, most often, awkward black men. Most stories are set in New York City. A few are set in Los Angeles. All of them involve racism as a daily occurrence, but the characters aren’t stereotypical and racism doesn’t define them. Each story is unique, including one that is a western shoot-out taking place in Manhatten. And what I liked best about most of these stories is that they had happy endings. ( )