After a slow start, John Woman turns into one of the finest Mosley books in years. Cornelius Jones is his father's caretaker, student, and stand-in, yet remains a mama's boy at heart. Loss, inattention, and tragedy experienced by Cornelius would destroy a lesser person, but armed with his father's stories, history, and books, young CC morphs into the professor John Woman, armed with a perspective on history, both global and personal, uniquely built, and a danger to Those Who Write History.

John Woman boils down to several essay-length monographs from Mosley on the nature of history, its fallacies, and new ways to see the world that is and was, and are worth separating from the novel and studying on their own.

A fantastic read, and among his best. (advance copy provided by NetGalley for unbiased reaction)

Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to preview this book. It's about a man who becomes a professor of deconstructionist history. A somewhat strange story, but interesting. Recommended.

A most unorthodox novel from Walter Mosley. But as the master he is, Mosley is able to write across genres without any falloff from his usual focus. You the reader, may never think the same way about the subject of history and its convention as useful and practical for study. Mosley delights with John Woman, the professor of historyish class offerings. John Woman is not his birth name, that would be Cornelius Jones, but after a bit of trouble he renames and remakes himself Professor John Woman.

His predicament that causes the name change starts with him being a very loving son to an auto-didactic father, Herman Jones. The writing that fleshes out this story is fantastic with lots of references to books, philosophers and philosophy allowing the readers to experience along with Cornelius/John the brilliance of his father’s mind as he is dying at a much too early age from heart disease.

The teaching and insights gained are often of the unconventional type, like

“Nothing ever happens in the past,” Herman was fond of saying, sitting erect among the pillows Cornelius would prop up behind him. “The past is gone and unobtainable. It is more removed from our lives than is God and yet it controls us just as He is purported to do.”

Or this gem of a lesson, “We all fade into the tapestry of the past,” Herman often said, “becoming like so many tiny knots in the weave of fine Chinese silk. There is nothing to distinguish you, me, or even who we might think is a great man. Time passes and we all diminish until the fabric of our age renders unto dust.”

This makes this novel so much more interesting than it would have been if done ‘conventionally.’ Mosley has packed a lot in these pages and the unpacking is challenging, intriguing and always fun. Not for the prudish, as there are some sex scenes that heat up the page. I don’t want to give away too much, so I’m being very reserved in how I write this review. Just know that the journey from Cornelius to Professor John Woman is lined with knowledge, inspiration and wisdom.

“All the books I have read swirl around like an ocean, with every page a wave. And now I drift in that vastness buoyed up by slippery knowledge, starving from want of anything with sustenance.”

The ending is a bit disappointing, only because it leaves more questions than answers but undoubtedly that is by design and I somehow believe that we will hear from John Woman again. Well done, Mr. Mosley. Thanks to Netgalley and Grove Atlantic for an advanced DRC. Book will be available Sept. 14, 2018. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I found myself feeling like I was back in college. I really enjoyed this book, it hit upon a lot of the concepts and interpretations of history, that I took to heart when I was a college student. Not overly preachy, but also not revolutionary in thought. I could not put it down, and the concepts of history Mosley employed were not new to me and he did not offer any new insights, but it was an easy read. It had similarities to "The Man in my Basement" and "Debbie Doesn't Do it Anymore" both of which I really enjoyed.