{"id":19513,"date":"2026-05-28T15:05:01","date_gmt":"2026-05-28T15:05:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/?p=19513"},"modified":"2026-05-28T15:05:01","modified_gmt":"2026-05-28T15:05:01","slug":"ghalen-a-romance-in-black-by-walter-mosley","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/28\/ghalen-a-romance-in-black-by-walter-mosley\/","title":{"rendered":"Ghalen: A Romance in Black by Walter Mosley"},"content":{"rendered":"

c.2026, Amistad\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0<\/em>
\n$30.00<\/em>
\n360 pages<\/em><\/p>\n

By Terri Schlichenmeyer<\/em>
\nThe Truth Contributer<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Take care.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 and, as in the new novel, Ghalen<\/em> by Walter Mosley,<\/strong> take care of others, too.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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 \u2013 and when she gave birth to their only son, it was the pinnacle of their lives.<\/p>\n

Ghalen was the best of both his parents. His mother said he was \u201cthe smartest person\u201d she\u2019d 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 \u2013 and that included many women.<\/p>\n

But as Ghalen grew and matured, he began to realize that he needed to make his own way in the world.\u00a0 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\u2019s talents needed closer to home now, with his father and his best friend, who was in and out of jail?<\/p>\n

How would Ghalen ever become a man of his own?<\/p>\n

Chances are, if you picked up a copy of this book, you\u2019d be looking for either \u201ca Romance in Black\u201d or you\u2019d expect another fast-paced novel from author Walter Mosley. The problem is, you might not get either.<\/p>\n

Ghalen<\/em> is messy. It\u2019s not a romance in the usual sense; there\u2019s a lot of sex, including an uncomfortably explicit assault scene, but not a lot of love-and-flowers stuff. Really, it\u2019s more Forrest-Gump<\/em>-ish, as the fifteen-year-old title character bounces through many, many<\/em> adult-like events over the course of a few months.<\/p>\n

Fans, though, they won\u2019t 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\u2019ll see Ghalen again in another book.<\/p>\n

Whether you view that as a good thing or not is another matter. This isn\u2019t a bad book, but it may take some patience for readers unused to Mosley\u2019s pleasantly-rambling style. You may like Ghalen<\/em> a lot \u2013 or you might not care for it.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

c.2026, Amistad\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 $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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19514,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"wf_post_folders":[20],"class_list":["post-19513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-book_review"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19513"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19513\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":19515,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19513\/revisions\/19515"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19513"},{"taxonomy":"wf_post_folders","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/wordpress.thetruthtoledo.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/wf_post_folders?post=19513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}