Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned (Paperback)

This book has many adult themes in it from the dialogue to the main character being a convicted rapist and murderer. We believe this book should be read by more advanced readers. The format of the book is very complex. It does not go in chronological order. A chapter might begin with something that happened three weeks before the initial reading, and the whole chapter might be on that sole event. If you have read ~House on Mango Street~ by Sandra Cisneros, which follows the same format, this novel is not so hard. However, if you have not experienced this kind of reading before, you might find yourself lost frequently. Anyone below high school will have a hard time with this book. ~Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned~ has many dramatic and depressing themes and chapters. We do not suggest this if you are looking for an uplifting book. Many controversial subjects are covered in this book like racism, discrimination, the life in a ghetto, murder, rape, and many other things that some people find uneasy to talk to about.

However, the book is fascinating, suspenseful, and makes you think. The novel is made to keep you on your toes with every twist of the story. Socrates becomes the unlikely hero that by the end of the book will leave you wanting more. We recommend this to anyone that is looking for an intense and wonderful novel that shows that there could be a little good still left in anyone no matter what.

Greg, Christian, Carrie & Ni - Culver Academy

At their best the taut writing and uncanny ability to explode the confusion and emptiness at the heart of many people's lives recalls Raymond Carver, but where Carver is content to leave his ethics enigmatic, Mosley is righteous and fierce. This is not to say that the central character, Socrates Fortlow is a judgemental moralist. Far from it. This burly ex-con with his huge rock-crushing hands and terrible past, is searching for truth in a world where truth is no much unfashionable as crushed out of people's souls by injustice. He is a seeker not a saviour.

The stories also form the link between Mosley's crime writing and his outstanding first SF novel, Blue Light, where issues of metaphysics are brought further into the foreground. Through the stories, Socrates acquires a kind of nobility that can only come from a totally honest struggle our own impulses as well as with the environment that surrounds us. There is a sense of place in 'Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned' that is very specific to 1980s Watts, but mythic and resonant and almost timeless at the same time. This only comes from genuine wisdom and understanding, qualities in which Mosley far outshines almost all contemporary authors.

There are one or two weaker stories, notably one in which Socrates gets involved with the courts again, but this is a collection to come back to. And as with Raymond Carver, I felt compelled to stop for quite some time after each one as the subtle but powerful emotional impact percolated through my brain.