Walter Mosley’s short novel The
Man in My Basement is an intriguing and dark piece of fiction.  Its
narrator is Charles Blakey, who lives in an old black neighborhood in a
secluded area on the eastern end of Long Island.  He lives in his family home
on his own, and he has no income because he was fired from his job at the local
bank for stealing.  Yet when a middle-aged bald white man, Anniston Bennet,
first turns up on his doorstep asking to rent the basement for the coming
summer, Blakey turns him down.  He is a proud and private man, and does not
want his routine interrupted.  Yet Blakey is also unhappy, drinking too much
and alienating his friends.  As he becomes more desperate, he reconsiders his
decision and comes to an agreement with Bennet.  In order to be able to rent
the space, Blakey has to clean it out, and in the process, he stumbles across
old family relics that remind him of his heritage.  According to family lore,
his family had never been enslaved, and this was a matter of pride.  Yet Blakey
proceeds to put up his family treasures for sale at auction and local stores in
the Hamptons, and they raise a good amount of money because they are highly
collectable.  Blakey also starts a flirtation with the woman who works as his
agent.  This brings out one of the striking themes of the novel; Blakey at the
same time is powerfully attracted to women but has never fallen in love and
seems unable to overcome his own isolation. 

Another theme of the novel concerns
guilt, reparation and necessary evil.  It comes up in ordinary ways at first,
such as Blakey’s theft from the bank and his refusal to admit his crime to even
his friends, and Blakey’s behavior towards his stepfather when the man was
dying.  However, the theme is crystallized when Bennet finally moves into the
basement, and Blakey learns more about the mysterious wealthy white man.  Bennet
says he is spending the time in the basement to pay for his own crimes, but he
won’t say what they are.  The story moves into a play of power between the
white man and the black man, and thus it becomes an exploration of the relation
between races. 

It is not so clear that Mosley’s
exploration answers any questions, and as a literary work, The Man in My
Basement has dubious success.  The highly secret activities of Anniston Bennet
make the reader wonder whether he is some kind of unlikely James Bond figure.  Bennet
argues that there are terrible things to be done behind the scenes in order for
ordinary people to keep their everyday happiness, and indeed he seems to have a
Nietzschian disdain for common folk.  But their discussions make Blakey wonder
and eventually his relationship with Bennet changes him.  It is a gripping
tale, but exactly how the themes of race, gender, money, and heritage all fit
together in the novel is elusive.

The audiobook is performed by
well-known actor Ernie Hudson who does an excellent job.  At occasional, maybe
crucial, points in the performance, ethereal piano music fades in, which is
somewhat distracting and odd.  Nevertheless, Hudson brings the characters alive
and manages to make Charles Blakey a sympathetic man despite all his faults. 

© 2004 Christian
Perring. All rights reserved.