No more Easy Rawlins
When the world first met Easy Rawlins, he was 28. It was post-World War II Los Angeles -- a city full of opportunity and without a long history -- not a bad place to be for a smart, confident black man. Fired from his job, Easy was in need of cash to pay his mortgage. So he agreed to find a missing blonde, and his adventures began.
The book was "Devil in a Blue Dress," the 1990 tale that launched a best-selling crime series by Walter Mosley.
Ten novels later, the private eye is world weary. He's aged about 20 years, seen plenty of blood and solved many mysteries. Race relations in Southern California have disintegrated since the 1965 Watts riots. He has a family to look after, and he has lost the love of his life.
Time has taken an emotional and physical toll on Easy. And Mosley has decided it's time to say goodbye.
"Blonde Faith," the final book in the series, is a melancholy send-off for Easy and his gang -- his adopted kids Feather and Jesus; Mouse, his skittish, dangerous best friend; and Bonnie Shay, his love.
And Mosley isn't even going to miss him.
"I've got other things to write," he says. "I've written 3,000 pages of Easy Rawlins. If you really miss him, go back and reread."
The Easy Rawlins books are disguised as crime novels, but they're really a narrative of American race relations from World War II until civil rights era of the 1960s. Starting with "Devil in a Blue Dress," we watch Easy navigate through a complicated system of society -- his observations on life and race razor-sharp -- in such books as "Cinnamon Kiss" and "Six Easy Pieces." Through it all, Easy remains a noble guy.
The character is widely regarded as the best in the genre. Bill Adams, mystery and thrillers buyer at Borders, Inc., said the success of the character is due in part to a loyal following -- after 10 books, readers are familiar with a character, and want to read more. But it's also the setting.
"People really identify with the historical content," Adams said. "He paints a great picture of that period and all the things going on at that time, and people want to learn more, or they identify with the time and want to read about it."
Mosley says it's all in a day's work.
"It is the job of a novelist to tell a story that engages somebody, about a world that is different, at least in perspective," he says. "A lot of times novelists, literary people will say that reading should be challenging. But a writer should never say that. The writer should say, 'I'm making this as accessible as possible.' "
Mosley grew up an only child in Los Angeles, his mother white and Jewish, and his father black, and the diversity is reflected in his writing. After graduating from Johnson State College in Johnson, Vt., in 1977, he worked a number of jobs before moving to New York City. He quit work as a computer programmer to study writing at The City College of New York, where he later developed a publishing program aimed at young, urban residents.
Writing comes easy to Mosley, 55. He writes three hours every day in his Brooklyn office and has published 28 books. He can't explain where his ideas originate, but he's got enough to keep him busy for two lifetimes. He's written young adult books, science fiction, erotica, biography, screen plays and even a book on how to write a novel.
And he's working on a collection of science fiction novellas that have no connection to each other, except for the theme: In every one, a black man destroys the world.
But Mosley is mostly known for his crime books -- a fact that he blames on marketing. And he's doing his best to avoid being pigeonholed, although he sort of dresses like a private eye in a suit, long black coat and hat.
"If you look at the history of writing, most people write all kinds of different things. It's only recently that people concentrate, and that's because it's how writers can be sold," he says.
Among the books he has coming out in next few months: "Diablerie," a noir tale about a guy living a very tamped down psychological life; "The Tempest Tales," a short-story collection and homage to Langston Hughes' "The Simple Stories"; and the third book in a series about a character named Socrates Fortlow.
Being black in America is a large component of Mosley's work, and he's been hailed as chronicler of race relations, someone whose poignant social commentary has inspired black writers and made black heroes everyday reading. But he doesn't think of himself as representing anything other than simply writing.
"I may be representative for somebody else, but not for me. I'm doing what I think is important. I love writing, and I write about black male heroes. I don't really want to write about anything else, so I don't."