RIGHT MISTAKE, THE by Walter Mosley - SIGNED FIRST EDITION BOOK
See all titles by Walter Mosley.Living
in South Central L.A., Socrates Fortlow is a sixty-year-old ex-convict,
still strong enough to kill men with his bare hands. Now freed after
serving twenty-seven years in prison, he is filled with profound guilt
about his own crimes and disheartened by the chaos of the streets.
Along with his gambler friend Billy Psalms, Socrates calls together
local people of all races from their different social stations—lawyers,
gangsters, preachers, Buddhists, businessmen—to conduct meetings of a
Thinkers’ Club, where all can discuss the unanswerable questions in
life.
The street philosopher enjoins his friends to
explore—even in the knowledge that there’s nothing that they personally
can do to change the ways of the world—what might be done anyway, what
it would take to change themselves. Infiltrated by undercover cops, and
threatened by strain from within, tensions rise as hot-blooded
gangsters and respectable deacons fight over issues of personal and
social responsibility. But simply by asking questions about racial
authenticity, street justice, infidelity, poverty, and the possibility
of mutual understanding, Socrates and his unlikely crew actually begin
to make a difference.
In turns outraged and affectionate, The Right Mistake
offers a profoundly literary and ultimately redemptive exploration of
the possibility of moral action in a violent and fallen world.