THE AWKWARD BLACK MAN

Mirron Willis, having narrated several Walter Mosley audiobooks, has an experienced grasp of the author's cadence and language. This familiarity, as well as Willis's prudent pronunciation, makes for a confident and compelling reading of Mosley stories. Like Mosley's novels, these tales are digressive and imaginative, dealing with, among other things, a fly's friendship, the sexual prowess of superheroes, and the transmigration of the human soul. But if there is any thread that connects this collection, it is Mosley's explorations of aging and death. We are all just "a hair's breadth from finality," one character reminds us. But don't let the subject matter put you off. Thanks to Willis's upbeat delivery--check out his voicing of Billy the Texan--and Mosley's dabs of surrealistic relief (a plastic surgeon's blind date leads to a metaphysical breakthrough; a company delivers messages from the dead), this quirky audiobook always entertains. R.W.S. © AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine [Published: DECEMBER 2020]