The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey

Now I have read three Walter Mosley books, all as book club selections.  The first (read in 2005) was Little Scarlet, one of his Easy Rawlins detective stories.  Then recently we read The Right Mistake, a Socrates Fortlow book.  I thought both of those books okay, but would not necessarily pick up another Mosley.  Next week book club will discuss his newest novel, The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey.

Wow.  I really liked this book when I didn't expect to.  It's about South Central LA characters and the realities of race, violence and poverty, but the main character, 91-year-old Ptolemy Usher Grey, well, I couldn't stop reading about him.  I don't want to give away anything, but this novel fuses, according to Alan Cheuse, "family, fable, science fiction and sociology."

Thanks, Jane, for choosing this one.