c.2026, Amistad
$30.00
360 pages
By Terri Schlichenmeyer
The Truth Contributer
Take care.
What a nice thing for someone to say as they take their leave! Be well. Stay safe. Be careful, watch where you walk, be mindful so you can see one another again. Take care – and, as in the new novel, Ghalen by Walter Mosley, take care of others, too.
It was raining the day Jamilah Fenestra and Robert Horton finally met, but the romance that sprang from there was often sunny for years to come.
Jammy was a scientist; Robert worked as an assistant chef at a restaurant. She took care of him when a policeman pushed him down on the cement, hitting his head and causing slight brain damage. He taught her to think slowly and carefully. They balanced one another well – and when she gave birth to their only son, it was the pinnacle of their lives.
Ghalen was the best of both his parents. His mother said he was “the smartest person” she’d ever encountered. His father taught him to think smart, to be kind, and that no job was beneath him. The boy grew up to be handsome and popular, a natural leader at a young age, a son who was willing to take care of his parents, even when he was just a schoolboy. He loved, and was loved deeply by those who knew him – and that included many women.
But as Ghalen grew and matured, he began to realize that he needed to make his own way in the world. His father would need even more help in the future, his grandmothers were not aging well, but life was an adventure to seize. Was college necessary, when so many people would require his assistance later, or were Ghalen’s talents needed closer to home now, with his father and his best friend, who was in and out of jail?
How would Ghalen ever become a man of his own?
Chances are, if you picked up a copy of this book, you’d be looking for either “a Romance in Black” or you’d expect another fast-paced novel from author Walter Mosley. The problem is, you might not get either.
Ghalen is messy. It’s not a romance in the usual sense; there’s a lot of sex, including an uncomfortably explicit assault scene, but not a lot of love-and-flowers stuff. Really, it’s more Forrest-Gump-ish, as the fifteen-year-old title character bounces through many, many adult-like events over the course of a few months.
Fans, though, they won’t mind. This book is written in the usual Mosley style, with long conversations, tiny details, psychology in characterization and plenty of grit, with a bit of his signature detective plotlining thrown in for good measure. Readers will also have good reason to wonder if you’ll see Ghalen again in another book.
Whether you view that as a good thing or not is another matter. This isn’t a bad book, but it may take some patience for readers unused to Mosley’s pleasantly-rambling style. You may like Ghalen a lot – or you might not care for it.