What will they Read?

Walter Mosley's
Always Outnumbered Always Outgunned
is a book of 14 short stories featuring Socrates Fortlow as he deals with the hardships facing an ex-convict who is trying to fit back into society. Mosley cover a vast range of societal issues that can be considered mundane at first glance, but which make up the important detail of life. Socrates' approach to his problems range from borderline illegal to genius in their simplicity and common sense.

Socrates' displays his philosophical age of wisdom in the opening story when he catches Darryl, a local boy who has stolen and killed a rooster. He proceeds to teach Darryl the difference between right and wrong in a caring but unorthodox way. Immediately following this is a story where Socrates engages in an act of vigilantism, using his violent nature to warn off an undesirable character living in the neighbourhood. These opening two stories paint a vivid picture of the two opposite sides of Socrates Fortlow, the reasoning thinker and the man of violent action.

Philosophical debates dominate many of these stories as Socrates meets men who: are thieves; are cheating on their wives; have walked out on their wives; have fought and killed in wars and who are now trying to cope with it; are cruel to animals. In each of these stories Socrates imparts his own brand of wisdom on others while inside he is in a struggle to contain the rage he feels towards these people.

This is a great discussion book on choices and consequences.

Recommended for teens 15 an up

Reveiw provided by Untouchable