Book Review: Fortunate Son by Walter Mosley

By Sandy Amazeen May 1, 2006, 17:36 GMT

From infancy Eric Nolan appeared to have it all, Nordic looks with an enviable natural athleticism and a sharp mind to boot he was everything Thomas Beerman was not. Tommy was born with a hole in his lung, spending the first months of his life in a sealed hospital environment with the doctors giving him slim odds of making it to his first birthday. He couldn’t tolerate the classroom environment and dropped out before finishing grade school. Dr. Minas Nolan and Branwyn Beerman discovered unexpected love as they struggled to cope with single parenthood thus creating an interracial family. Despite their differences, the boys soon become inseparable until Branwyn’s sudden death tears their world apart.

Tommy finds himself wrenched from the only family he has ever known to live with his dysfunctional father. It is a difficult transition that finds Tommy becoming ever more self reliant, lying low and scrounging a living any way he can, eventually becoming a street person. His life is filled with hardship as he endures shootings, knife wounds, broken bones and repeated rapes but through it all, he takes delight in the little things around him. The sun hitting the wings of a butterfly, the call of a crow or the slow progress of a beetle are all that is needed to help Tommy deal with the ugliness around him. For him, life is a gift and each day is to be savored.

Eric mourns the loss of his brother as he grows to manhood; Tommy had a unique perspective and keen insight into human nature that Eric trusted more then his own. No matter that all things seemed to come easily to him, his heart was never engaged and he wondered at the flaw. He took little joy in the world and people around him.

The two brothers eventually reunite, nearly at the cost of Tommy’s life. A tangled legal mess from Tommy’s years on the streets forces them to flee to New York until the matter can be straightened out. Help comes from an unexpected source and with some serious strings attached that thrusts Tommy into making a split second life or death decision that either way, will haunt him for the rest of his life as it steals his most precious possession.

This is a well written, touching story about family bonds and the profound differences an individual’s outlook can have on their lives. Mosley’s deft style manages to take an unlikely set of characters and make them work. Detailed character development allows the reader to connect with the brothers while the storyline moves at a comfortable pace, following the two as they grow to manhood. This is as nice a piece of human-interest fiction as you are likely to find anywhere, read slowly and enjoy.