13 September, 2003
A Little Yellow Dog, Walter Mosley (300 pp, HC, 1996)
This follow-up to Black Betty takes place in 1963. Easy Rawlins has a real job now; he's the facilities manager for an elementary school in Watts. His life has been pretty stable for the last couple of years, but of course this can't be expected to go on, not when there's a novel to be read. Easy's troubles begin, as they so often do, with a hot babe. One morning, before school, one of the teachers seduces him in an empty classroom. Then, he agrees to take care of her nasty little dog for a few days while she leaves her husband. Then, her brother-in-law is found murdered on school property, and she disappears. Before he knows it, Easy's once again involved with criminal types, he's in trouble with the police, and his stable family life is starting to disintegrate. I swear, this guy would have way fewer problems if he'd learn to keep it in his pants.
To be fair, he does learn, even if he's slow. This adventure drives home the conflict between Easy's old life as a poor man on the streets and his new, upwardly-mobile family life, and the long-overdue realization that he can't keep one foot in each world forever. This is reflected among all of Easy's acquaintances, as well as in his own life-- some his friends from "back in the day" have moved on to a more stable lifestyle (e.g. John), while others appear to be forever mired in the muck of crime and poverty (e.g. Jackson Blue). The hardest lesson for Easy comes from his best friend Mouse, who makes a conscious effort to get out of the criminal world, but who fails terribly, due in part to his loyalty to Easy.