This book was a freebie that my mom picked up at work. She insisted that I would enjoy it because
it’s one of those depressing but good books.
I’ve never read anything by Walter Mosley before but I have seen a lot
of his books around. I’m still not sure
why I hadn’t tried reading his work before, but this has made me eager to pick
up more of his books.
The book starts in 1986 when Thomas Beerman is born with a
hole in his lung. His mother stays in
the hospital as much as she can, with no help from the father of her
child. Soon she meets Dr. Minas Nolan, a
surgeon at the hospital whose wife recently died after giving birth to their
son, Eric. The two form an unlikely
relationship that lasts until her death when the boys are 6. Minas and Brwyn never married despite his
many proposals, so after her funeral, Thomas is taken away from the Nolan’s by
his erstwhile father, Elton. Elton
doesn’t want Thomas to grow up with white people in Beverly Hills and for the
short time that he has his son Elton tries to make Thomas in his image. Meanwhile, Eric misses his mother and brother
but has a very charmed life. Everything
he tries, he succeeds at. While Thomas
has probably the worst luck that anyone could have.
The book alternates between Eric and Thomas’s lives
throughout the years. It is very hard to
read through Thomas’s sections—they are just so traumatic and wrong on every
level. Eric has a great life but is
concerned about the effect that he has on those around him. He is afraid that he unintentionally kills
those that love him.
This is an excellent and engrossing story, I had a hard time
putting it down. But if you don’t want
to read anything depressing you should stay far away from this novel.
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