The Tempest Tales

Title: The Tempest Tales 3.5 / 5
Author: Walter Mosley
2008
Began Reading: 6/29/2009
Ended Reading: 7/1/2009

Format: CD





Walter Mosley writes another thought provoking book. This time the protagonist is a man who dies goes for judgment and turns heaven, hell and Earth upside down.

Tempest Landry is a man of indeterminate moral fortitude, but when he decides to tell the Angels no, I don’t want to leave Earth being judged by your standards; there’s a rhyme and reason for everything I’ve done. It is almost as if the world stops spinning. Literally.

Tempest was shot dead by the NYPD, by mistake. When he was brought before St Peter for judging, he decided to speak up and tell them why he believed their ruling to damn him to hell for eternity was not just. St Peter recalls that Tempest has been a con man, a cheater, a scoundrel and a man of all around ill repute. However, Tempest had an answer for each of the charges. When St Peter surprisingly, could not with all certainty convict Tempest he decided to send Tempest back to Earth to prove his mettle.

St Peter sent an angel to accompany and account for Tempest’s probable transgressions as a mortal. Joshua Angel kept a distant eye on Tempest always waiting for him to say he was wrong to be sent to the fiery depths. However, Joshua’s time here on Earth was spent pursuing earthly fulfillments, such as love, work and fun.

Joshua came to Earth and found the love of a woman, whom surprisingly, he never made his wife. They had the relations of a mortal couple, yet the joining in matrimony was never broached. I wonder if this was a commentary from Mr. Mosley. I wonder if he was saying marriage is an act of man, not of God.

Tempest had been on Earth in his new body for over a year. He had fallen back into his old ways, yet Angel could not make him pronounce his own guilt. This is when he meets the other side of the coin, Bob. Basil Bob, or to the trained ear Beelzebub. Believe it or not, Mr. Bob had something to do with the failures of heaven to convict. If all of the souls decided to not accept their sentences, what would happen to hell’s numbers, or heaven’s numbers? What about Earth? This would mean the universe’s finely tuned balancing act, would be no more.

The relationship of Tempest to Basil Bob and Joshua Angel were strange to me. Tempest seemed to treat Angel almost as an equal, but there seemed to be an underlying fear of BB. Tempest would do things to get the ire of BB, but he never seemed to totally cross that line. Whereas, with Angel he would give him at times, no respect. This shows the dichotomy of good and evil. This shows what people value more immorality, decadence and sin.

Walter Mosley also tackled another one of the issues he does best, race. He does not allow Tempest to wallow in Black self pity. He achieves this by the actions of others in the story, as well as the dialog between Angel and Tempest. Tempest wanted to blame his unjust death on the racist cops, but Angel made him see that his death had little to do with race and more to do with coincidence or circumstance. In every Mosley book I’ve read, he always had characters that would dispel many untruths about racism. Mosley always turns the issue on its head and makes sure the reader looks at it from all angles.

A new theme, for me in this book deals with religion. As a recovering Muslim, I would have either never read this book; or felt total disdain for the author. Mosley subtly tries to tell his readers to think more broadly. Don’t just take what is given to you; or for that matter believe the judgment handed down should be the final decision. Question everything. Had Tempest not had the temerity to questions his judge he would have been sent directly to Basil Bob.

Another point on the religious aspect of this tiny book was Mosley never spoke of God. He never gave God a name, nor for that matter did he make him that important. I believe he did that because the African American readership would have had their panties in a bunch, had he said a mere mortal questioned God and won. I believe Mosley wanted to take all the ammunition from the religious bunch. He did not want them to turn his story into an anti God rant. He wanted them to think critically about many situations. However, there is also the chance he did not want to alienate Black folk with their superstitious, religious sensibilities.

The word tempest is a noun. It means a violent commotion, disturbance, or tumult. That is what Tempest did. He caused a commotion and made us think. He made us challenge racism, love, hate, fear, respect and religion.

The word tempest is a noun. It means a violent commotion, disturbance, or tumult. That is what Tempest did. He caused a commotion and made us think. He made us challenge racism, love, hate, fear, respect and religion.