I am sorry for not reviewing fully but I don’t have the time to read this anymore. I believe that it wouldn't benefit you as a publisher or your book if I only skimmed it and wrote a rushed review. Again, I am sorry for not fully reviewing!

This is not your usual Walter Mosley novel. Young Cornelius Jones is forced to take over his father's job as a projectionist when he falls ill. As his mother has already left the household the weight of taking care of his ailing father and their home rests on his shoulders. One night he is surprised by the owner of the movie house. In his desperation he kills the man and hides his body within the walls of the projectionist room. When the police come calling he finds himself intrigued by the young brown eyed female officer. Although he is 17 and she is quite a bit older than he, the two start meeting up and eventually engage in a sexual affair. Their first encounter cannot be construed as anything less than assault. I admit I clutched my pearls. But this is Walter Mosley so I endured and this is where the book gets good, real good.. Upon his father's passing Cornelius reinvents himself into John Woman. As such he becomes a passionate albeit unconventional professor. It is in his deconstruction and reinvention of history that Mosley's literary prowess shines. Such thought provoking and unsettling fare. This book was brilliance. Sheer brilliance.

I’ve read and enjoyed many of Mosley’s earlier novels. Although his writing remains very readable, this one was not my cup of tea. It was hard for me to get past the main character Cornelius Jones as a teenager in a sexual relationship with a thirty one year old woman.

I have been a Walter Mosely fan for such a long time, so when I was offered the opportunity to read and review this new work, jumped at it. Let me say I was not at all disappointed. The beginning was a bit slow and I did not think I would get far with it, but I resolved to stick with it and I am glad I did!

This was a departure from the typical Mosely formula. Even though there was a murder investigation; it was not the main subject of the story. This one took me on so many sub- stories to explore that at times I felt a bit confused, yet intrigued, I could not let this story go. It was well worth the ride to follow CC on his journey and transformation.
Overall, this was a great read.

Published by Atlantic Monthly Press on September 4, 2018

In John Woman, Walter Mosley again proves why his inclusion in my list of three favorite modern crime writers is not just laminated, but anchored in cement. John Woman is a crime novel in the way that Native Son and Crime and Punishment are crime novels. The books combines a crime plot with philosophy, psychology, and Tolstoy’s view that historical truth is elusive if not impossible to discover. It is fresh and original and a masterpiece in concept and execution.

Cornelius “CC” Jones lived with his father, Herman Jones, but he learned about life from his mother’s stories about the gangsters she dated. Herman reveres the English language, suggesting he might be modeled after Mosley, whose love of language is revealed in the lovely language he uses to tell his tales. But Herman is losing his words and finds himself living in the past, robbed of the present by the creeping onset of dementia.

Herman is hospitalized when the novel begins and bedridden for the next several years. CC secretly takes over Herman’s job as a projectionist so that the paychecks will keep coming. In 1955, when CC is 16, he commits a murder and is later seduced by a female cop who (unaware of the murder) enjoys dominating him. His mother has disappeared, apparently having accompanied a mobster who fled from the law.

When the novel shifts ahead to 1974, CC had adopted the identity of John Woman to protect himself from arrest for a murder he knows will eventually be discovered. He is a professor of history at a university founded and operated by members of a new age religion, a subgroup of which is known as the Platinum Path. He teaches his students that historical truth is a mirage shaped by the political, religious, and cultural biases of historians — a view that other faculty members view as undermining history and historians.

John Woman is rooted in a murder, but it is primarily a story of decent people who treat each other decently, people who value life and who understand the importance of generosity, forgiveness, and acceptance. Their decency transcends race or religion. History is full of heroes who spend time shaping a legacy, but life is full of heroes who will never be studied by historians — the friends who sacrifice to help us get through tough times, the strangers who make an effort to be kind to another stranger, the ordinary folk who make a difference in unseen ways that nevertheless change the world.

John Woman reminds us that what we don’t know about the people society regards as historically important vastly exceeds what we do know. We know even less about all the equally important people who shaped but have been lost to history. Making that point in a lecture to the faculty nearly costs Woman his job. His freedom (and thus his life) is at risk because his history as a murderer might be discovered — but it is a history he shares with many murderers, and yet another example of undiscovered historical knowledge.

The novel’s multiple themes include: bringing courage and dignity to death, the importance of understanding history to understanding life, casting off the chains of childhood to become an adult, rejection of false certainties in favor of intellectual inquiry, the nature of fate and destiny (“our purposes are not necessarily our intentions”), the need to shape the future rather than obsessing about the unchangeable past, the possibility of rising above the limited role that society might assign to people of a particular race or origin, the empowering recognition that oppressors are victims of their own oppression, the myth of white identity, the notion that denying someone else’s past (pretending, for example, that people of an oppressed group were never oppressed) is a form of murder, the drive people feel to judge each other and how little right they have to do it. And this: “There’s no value in persecuting someone for overcoming their history in an attempt to forge a better future.”

John Woman is a surprising character — he never does the expected, and is capable of both great empathy and cold calculation, able at any moment to make either the most or the least moral choice. He likens himself to the coyote of mythology, the cunning trickster. The plot of John Woman is also surprising. For all the novel’s surprises, however, it always maintains credibility; none of the plot twists are forced.. The intersection of John’s life with the Platinum Path adds suspense, as does the question of whether John will go to prison (and perhaps be transformed into predator or prey) for the crime he committed almost two decades earlier. Still, this is a novel of ideas (“the most dangerous products of humankind”) rather than thrills, of complex moral choices rather than fights and shootouts. It might be Mosley’s best work.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

I'd previously read a couple of Mosley’s books (Cinnamon Kiss and Down the River Unto the Sea) and though I’d appreciated the prose I didn't really enjoy the way in which the stories were stitched together. But I knew the man could write and I’d read enough about this book to know that it was a departure from his normal output. And in fact this book certainly is different – different from pretty much anything else I’ve read, in fact.

It starts off as a story about a boy, Cornelius (or CC), who is juggling the requirements of school with the need to cover his sick father’s job as a projectionist at the local cinema. Money is tight and this is the only way they can make ends meet. It’s clear early on though that his father isn't going to recover from his illness. In the meantime CC is learning a good deal from his intellectual dad. CC reads to him at his bedside and they discuss all manner of challenging tomes. His mother is living a separate life and though CC loves her dearly there is no chance of a reconciliation with his father. A fateful event brings this section of the book to a close.

From here on we pick up CC’s story when he’s managed to complete his education and change his identity. He’s now a history professor at an unorthodox university. His new name is John Woman (you’ll have to read the book to find out why he adopted this moniker) and the course he runs challenges the views and accounts espoused by conventional historians. In essence, he propounds a theory that we should not trust what history books tell us as we can never know what truly happened – history was written by people with an agenda or without knowledge of the full facts.

A good deal of what follows amounts to a discussion between JW and his students: he talks, they ask questions of him and he asks questions of them. It’s interesting stuff but the language is sometimes challenging and I found that it wasn't always easy to follow the thread of JW’s arguments. There is the additional intrigue of his personal relationship with at least one of the students and the office politics that arise from the contrary views of some of his colleagues concerning his course. Then there's the university itself – it really is very unorthodox indeed.

Don't get the idea there's no mystery or excitement here, there is. But at heart this is very much a literary novel, so fans of the author’s crime fiction beware. It’s intelligent, sometimes confusing but always readable. I found myself missing the book when I wasn't engrossed in reading it. I never really knew where it was taking me but that was part of the fascination.

My only real grumble is that I was confused by the ending. I read the last section twice but I still wasn't clear on either the ‘what’ or the ‘why’ of it. But maybe that's just me. Please don't be put off from trying this one out – I’ll wager that it’ll stretch your mind and make you re-consider some long held views (it did me). Above all, I believe there's a better than even chance it’ll entertain you.

Walter Mosley kept me up nights with this extraordinary novel. We meet our protagonist Cornelius C. Jones before his sixteenth birthday. A hard working responsible young man, he is the breadwinner for his small family, a full time student, and the caregiver for his dying father, Herman Jones. And we follow him - CC to some as mostly just his father addresses him as Cornelius - through several transitions and into his 30's. Smart - almost too smart - he has developed and eventually teaches a theory concerning history, a subject he often mulled over with his father. History, he believes, is ever changing, and subject to the interpretation of the author or speaker, meaning history is not a constant, and the person who controls history can control their fate. And only the winner of any conflict will write history from only his view point, so you cannot trust any other persons' version of the past or the future. Only the present is yours to command. Maybe.

As always, Walter Mosley writes an intricate story with enough of the contrary to keep you on your toes. His characters are deep and complex. There is not one person in this novel who isn't full and flush with life. Seeing history through the eyes of Mosley is a very compelling view.

I received a free electronic copy of this novel from Netgalley, Walter Mosley, and Atlantic Monthly Press in exchange for an honest review. Thank you all for sharing your hard work with me.

I honestly don't know how to review this novel. I stopped reading Mosley a while back because his characters did not resonate with me but this, this is different. John Woman, who has transformed himself from Cornelius Jones, is a history professor who struggles with history. Some of the argument is philosophical and some of it is rooted in his own past. There's some intriguing interactions with women (note there are sex scenes) and a cult which is reminiscent of Scientology. It's written in Mosley's idiosyncratic style, which can be, well, whatever you think it might be (I'm not always a fan). Those looking for Easy Rawlins will find an interesting new and very different character here. Thanks to the publisher for the ARC.

I read to 39% and I'm letting this one go. I appreciate the opportunity to read this John Woman, however I am not going to be able to fairly rate this book. I have an issue with any sexual relationship between adults and teens. I don't care how 'mature' the child (17 yr old) is supposed to be nor how hard his/her life has been to make them grow up fast. A 31 year old woman has absolutely no business having sex with a 17 year old. Not just sex, but aggressive sex that leaves him confused about his own reactions to her.

I made it through the first part of this story thinking that there would be some story development that would engage me enough to get to and through the murder and investigation, but with the emergence of John Woman as an adult and the introduction of his life as a professor, I am so disinterested that I am just throwing in the towel. Between the pretentious debate about what history is and isn't and John Woman's internal dialogues and musings I'm going to just assume that I am not the kind of reader who can stick with and enjoy this story.

"John Woman" is a treatise on mind, race, history, morality, religion and murder. It did not hold my interest and I did not finish.

I received a review copy of "John Woman" by Walter Mosley (Grove Atlantic) through NetGalley.com.

JOHN WOMAN is vintage Walter Mosley and more. This is an inspiring, dark, convoluted, and quirky story that traces the life choices of Cornelius “CC” Jones and his transformation into John Woman, a truly unconventional history teacher. He is the son of an Italian-American mother and Herman Jones, an amazingly well-read and deeply philosophical black man, who lives out his final days instructing CC in the true power, use, and misuse of history. To keep the family financially afloat, CC takes over his father’s job as a movie theater projectionist, which propels the young man into committing an unspeakable crime. To escape this world and the law, CC disappears and reinvents himself as professor John Woman, imparting his father’s teachings to his both willing and unwilling students. Always looking over his shoulder, he attempts to sidestep his sordid past while protecting his career from those who find him a bit too controversial. The writing is, as always with Mosley, gritty and poetic and the characters richly nuanced.


DP Lyle, award-winning author of the Jake Longly thriller series

Surprisingly, John Woman was my first book by Walter Mosley, but it won't be my last. This is a strange, imaginative book, with strong plotting, intriguing characters and thought-provoking elements. It is difficult to categorize this book, because it has elements of various genres, but whatever it is, I enjoyed it!

John Woman (2018)
By Walter Mosley
Atlantic Monthly Press, 320 pages.
★★★★

“The hierarchy of history rarely documents its greatest heroes—they’re too busy doing to waste time on legacy.” You probably don’t expect to pick up a Walter Mosley novel and read such a line. After all, he’s best known for his sharp-tongued, hard-boiled detective novels that draw comparisons to Raymond Chandler. Mosley has long been known for his jump-off-the-page lines and his African-American protagonists, but John Woman is another thing altogether: a book that’s both a mystery and philosophy of history.

The story catches fire in 1995, when protagonist Cornelius (“CC”) Jones is 16-years-old and is caring for his father, Herman, the projectionist at a silent movie house in Brooklyn operated by the tyrannical Chapman Lorraine. The latter is trying to squeeze every last dime from the old Arbuckle Theater—a task that means neglecting the building, Herman, and ticket-taker France Bickman—but mainly he’s just for the right moment to fire his employees and shutter the old barn. Herman is prematurely worn out physically and emotionally. He managed to escape Mississippi during the days of Jim Crow and make his way to New York, where he met Lucia Napoli, and Italian-American firecracker. They produced CC, but Lucia was simply too free-spirited to contain, and bolted when CC was just a child.

To say that Herman is an unconventional single father hardly scratches the surface. He is also an autodidact who overcame childhood illiteracy and schooled himself in history and philosophy. Forget Dr. Seuss and childhood primers; CC’s childhood bedtime stories came from such unlikely writers as Thucydides, Herodotus, Plato, and the Durants. Before he was 12, CC was expected to have views on Marx and Aristotle. Of course, at some point, a lad also comes of age. Circumstance forces CC to accelerate his maturation. He’s secretly covering for father at the Arbuckle, and is clandestinely initiated into life’s carnal pleasures by policewoman Colette Margolis, who is investigating Lorraine’s disappearance.

Be prepared for numerous inappropriate relationships; John Woman is not a novel that deals with the lives and values of the material- and status-conscious middle class. Quite the opposite; it moves from society’s bottom rung to the top half of the ladder. When Herman passes away—mourned only by his son, France, and his unpaid Irish housekeeper—CC finds that he has come into a legacy of the financial kind. John Woman is partly about reinvention, and we leap ahead to the year 2013. CC disappeared several identities ago. After obtaining degrees from Harvard under one name and some creative paperwork under another, he is now John Woman—there is a reason for the surname—an assistant professor of history at the New University of the Southwest in Arizona.

If you’re thinking, ho hum, another novel about a kid saved through education but worried about being exposed as a fraud, you couldn’t be more wrong. John/CC teaches a course titled Introduction to Deconstructionist Historical Devices and is widely acknowledged to be a genius and an iconoclast. Woman’s students love him—once they get him—but most of his colleagues loathe him. His approach to history is revolutionary; Woman insists that, “history is what is left over after all living memory has been erased.” Readers recognize this as confessional on one level, but Woman also asserts that history’s primary meaning lies with its future uses because all history is, at best, fanciful speculation based upon incomplete evidence. Even if you’re not a historian, you will find yourself drawn into John Woman’s methods and deductions. Call it an unconventional kind of detective work.

If you are a professional historian such as I, you will either read these passages and scores of other musings as affirmation of the dynamic nature of inquiry, or you’ll be outraged by how cavalierly John Woman dismisses traditional evidence. This tension is Mosley’s point. Woman’s colleagues think he’s a fraud; or is it that they are intimidated that he might expose them as being such? It doesn’t help that he’s not an outwardly warm person and, as we learn, not one who follows rules—more inappropriate relationships. Worst of all in the eyes of some, the college administration and a rich board member named Willie Pepperdine seem to love John Woman.

Here’s where the novel takes a twist that I found problematic. Without revealing too much, it seems that the school’s founders and leaders are more than one sees on the surface. There is a shadowy Illuminati-like organization called the Platinum Path of “strong-minded intellectuals” bent on saving humankind from itself. John Woman finds himself in its orbit, but does he wish to land? Can he escape the fact that he’s not yet history, as not all “living memory has been erased.” See John run, but can he hide?

I adored the first three quarters of this novel. I’m conflicted when Moseley goes Dan Brown on us. John Woman is so smart and provocative that I feel compelled to pull my critical punches, but it sure feels as if Mosley wrote himself into an existential corner from which only a dodgy contrivance could extricate him. I was fascinated by Herman, who was indeed a hero too busy doing to be concerned with legacy. John/CC is equally intriguing as a deconstructionist of both himself and the discipline of history. I would even consider using parts of Mosley’s book in a history class; it’s that thought-provoking. In the end, I was drawn to the remark that truth is found in “actions not your convictions.” I found considerably more veracity in Mosley’s characters than in a Platinum Path that seemed more a rusted tin cliché.

Rob Weir

Grim story of a brilliant man hiding a dark past, and all the psychological ramifications of violating personal codes of ethics and values.

Very well written, plot-line is better than average, but not a feel good story. A lot of explicit sexual content. I can't say I recommend the book, or enjoyed reading it, but it contains a lot of interesting ideas about the plasticity of history, and is probably worth reading if you're up for it.

This is one of the most interesting books I've read this year. Walter Mosley is a popular and prolific writer. I came away from reading John Woman knowing I will read it again. Mr Mosley has written about ideas that are worth pursuing. He has created a character that has enough education from school and from his father to know that man is hindered by accepting what he is taught vs what is true. John Woman wants to shake up his students blind faith in the way the world works. Do we live by our instincts or by our purposes or is there something else hidden in our actions.

This is not a run of the mill mystery or coming of age book although both those things are part of the story. This is a story with broad ranging ideas that might just stretch your mind. It certainly did that for me.

This book took me by surprise. I'm not sure what I expected, but it's not what I read. This book was heady, perhaps too heady to become a movie, but who knows? Reading on my iPad, I wasn't sure this was really the end. But it was the end. I don't want to give spoiler alerts, but I'm wondering if there will be a continuation of this CC/John Woman character in a future book. Poof. He's gone.

The academic and prostitute characters create an intriguing means to release this story. Our main character is fueled by release. John Woman had a bit of an academic cultish following, leaving his followers to feel simultaneously both more and less complete.

I wish the mother had a larger role in the novel, but the novel is mostly about the lessons learned from CC's father. The mother disappeared when he was young, and that absence affected father and son in disturbing ways.

A rather far-fetched, yet enjoyable novel.

"John Woman" by Walter Mosley is not a light and easy read. |The challenge does not lie in the story line, but in the thoughts and lectures of the main character, Cornelius Jones / John Woman, who eventually becomes a professor of "deconstructionist" history. His thoughts are deep and esoteric, not your basic history lecture. The meat of this novel is in Woman's thoughts, goals, dreams and guilts. While the story line was what appealed in the description of the book, the plot is almost an afterthought, Hard to describe and explain, but be forewarned that this tome is for deep thinkers and those who like a challenge to standard ways of thought.

This novel was not what I expected. I've read his Easy Rawlins books. But John Woman, for me at least, was a real departure from them.

It was a combination of straight forward narrative and dystopian. With its Platinum Path cult, it felt like a valuable critique of Scientology (which frankly creeps me out after one visit to its Washington DC "temple) and such cults. Also, it challenge what we think about identity and history. What's in a name, after all? And what happens to a particular history and culture when the dominant society enslaves a people?

What I found amazing about this book was how Mosley wove all this into a very entertaining read. So much so that I picked the advance review copy of this I had every chance I had.

A fascinating read.

Walter Mosley is one of my favorite writers. Known primarily for his Easy Rawlins mysteries, he’s branched out into other mystery series, science fiction, literary tales, etc. There seems to be nothing the man can’t write and make compelling. John Woman is difficult to classify. On its face it is the story of Cornelius Jones, a boy who is reimagined later in life as Professor John Woman. It’s the story of Woman’s life and how it affected by a hideous crime from his past. But in the end, what John Woman is most, is a story of ideas and philosophies that make the reader not only think, but react. Walter Mosley is a national gem.

Mosley does it again. A thought-provoking, deep, and very readable novel. Fully drawn out characters that keep you wanting more.