Walter Mosley writes excellent
crime novels set in 1960s Los Angeles that explore the African American culture
of that era.  However, he likes to write novels in other genres, such as
existential dramas, science fiction, and now a family saga.  These are far less
successful: they seem to have higher ambitions, but are plagued by heavy
symbolism, weak characterization, and thin social commentary.  Fortunate Son
is especially tiresome.  Two boys are born at the same time; Tommy is black,
Eric is white.  Tommy is born with a heart defect and nearly dies in his first
months.  Eric is so healthy he is uncontainable, but his mother died in
childbirth.  Tommy and his poor single mother join Eric and his doctor father
to form one family.  The two boys come to consider themselves brothers.  Then
the boys become separated in childhood, and the novel follows their lives. 
Tommy comes to be known as Lucky, because he isn’t.  In fact, his life is full
of suffering and difficulty.  The blond and blue-eyed white Eric is precocious,
intellectually, physically, and sexually.  He plays tennis with incredible
skill, able to defeat strong players much older than him.  He graduates from
high school at 15.  And he is conquering women with his animal magnetism and
enormous penis early in his teens.  Yet he is also isolated and since his
separation from Lucky, he finds it very hard to connect to other people.

The novel moves rapidly through the
major life events of Lucky and Eric, as they go through incredible trials in
their encounters powerful men and devoted or unreliable women.  As a
psychological drama, the story does not hold the reader’s attention because the
characters seem more like placeholders for ideas rather than real people.  The
plot is unbelievable in its details, and it seems more like a parable or a
modern myth than a document of the contemporary world.  Yet often the story
feels more like a soap opera rather than a serious novel.  It takes
determination to keep on reading, yet this effort is not rewarded, because the
story amounts to so little.  The plot unfolds and just leaves the reader
puzzled as to what it meant to mean. 

Lorraine Toussaint reads the unabridged
audiobook, and she makes the experience far more bearable — I would never have
finished the book if I had been turning the pages myself.  Her performance is
steady and spirited, but she isn’t able to redeem this disappointing novel.

Links to reviews of other Walter Mosley novels:

• 47
• The Wave
• Cinnamon
  Kiss
• Little
  Scarlet
• The Man
  in My Basement

© 2006 Christian Perring. All
rights reserved.

Christian Perring, Ph.D., is Academic Chair of
the Arts & Humanities Division and Chair of the Philosophy Department at
Dowling College, Long Island. He is also editor of Metapsychology Online
Review.  His main research is on philosophical issues in medicine,
psychiatry and psychology.

Categories: Fiction, AudioBooks