Devil in a Blue Dress For those of you who don’t already know, I have been severely disillusioned by a writer’s group reading list from ASU (see this post). I was so severly misled in these reading choices that I honestly wish I could get back those few precious hours of my life that I spent reading this book (and this one), hours I could use to take bubble baths, learn Spanish or–hell–watch a few episodes of some primetime, soap-opery Dawson’s Creek-esque shit. Even that might be better.**

I mean, sheesh. This is a detective story. Ok, it’s a well-done detective story but the genre as a whole is well-worn. Normal guy hard on his luck pulled into a murky underworld he doesn’t understand because he’s low on funds for the rent. There is stolen money, used lovers, a blue-eyed blond girl, car chases, bad asses, dead bodies, jazz music, drinking, double-crossing, police beatings… You name it. In fact, the action became a bit confusing and the motives/means for every crime are still hazy at the end.

The only thing you probably couldn’t guess about the plot was that the narrator is a black man, which in post-WWII L.A. was not so easy to be. Denzel Washington played the lead in the movie version. Now Denzel plays a similar character in most movies–hard, strong, either cop or robber but always in charge–and this character, Easy Rawlins, was just as flat and lifeless to me.

Perhaps that is only me, though. The critics on the dust cover rave their asses of and the author has gone on to not only have the mocie made but also spin off a few more detective tales featuring the same character. Even Maya Angelou lent her name to the book (Maya Angelou!) by saying:

“The year was any year I wanted it to be. I was young and beautiful, with plenty of money, watching and listening as Bill Robinson tap-danced his way into my heart.”

Ummm, sure. Whatever. Perhaps that is just her nice way of saying, “Well, it was a tad predictable.” Or her senility. Who knows. If you like detective stories, hey, go for it. (You hear that, Dad? You might like it.) But as for me, Easy Rawlins can melt back into the sea of genre fiction from which it came.

Rating: 2 out of 5 stars – Mediocre

** In the reading list’s defence, it did also give me Cloud Atlas, which enthralled and thrilled me.