Audiobook4 hours
The Tempest Tales
Written by Walter Mosley
Narrated by Ty Jones
Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
4/5
()
About this audiobook
The author of 30 critically acclaimed works, Walter Mosley has had his novels translated into 23 languages. The Tempest Tales, an Essence Book Club Recommended Read, features Tempest Landry, a black man shot down by an over-eager cop. But that's not the end of the line for Tempest. Unwilling to accept St. Peter's judgment that he spend eternity in Hell, Tempest is sent back to Harlem- guardian angel in tow-to make things right.
Author
Walter Mosley
Walter Mosley is the author of over twenty critically acclaimed books and his work has been translated into twenty-one languages. His popular mystery series featuring Easy Rawlins began with Devil in a Blue Dress in 1990, which was later made into a film starring Denzel Washington. Born and raised in Los Angeles, he now lives in New York.
More audiobooks from Walter Mosley
The Awkward Black Man: Stories Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Touched Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dangerous Women: Original Stories from Today's Greatest Suspense Writers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wave Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Stepping Stone & Love Machine: Two Short Novels from Crosstown to Oblivion Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Elements of Fiction Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inside a Silver Box Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Always Outnumbered, Always Outgunned Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Related to The Tempest Tales
Related audiobooks
Witnesses for the Dead: Stories Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDiablerie: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Right Mistake: The Further Philosophical Investigations of Socrates Fortlow Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Six Easy Pieces: Easy Rawlins Stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inside a Silver Box Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Noir: Mystery, Crime, and Suspense Fiction by African-American Writers Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Atlanta Noir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Inner City Blues Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5John Henry Days Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Casanegra: A Tennyson Hardwick Story Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Tambourines to Glory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Johnny Get Your Gun Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Intuitionist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pleasantville Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Black Water Rising Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5John Crow's Devil Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Cool Cottontail Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Everywhere You Don't Belong Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hitting a Straight Lick with a Crooked Stick: Stories from the Harlem Renaissance Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Darktown: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cemetery Road Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Where the Line Bleeds Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Outsider: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Eyes of Buddha Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Gone Dead: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Proverbs for the People Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Zora Hurston and the Strange Case of Ruby McCollum Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Homemade Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Manchild in The Promised Land Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Brenton Brown Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
General Fiction For You
A Court of Mist and Fury Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Court of Thorns and Roses Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Man Called Ove: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A Court of Frost and Starlight Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Court of Wings and Ruin Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5And Then There Were None Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave the World Behind: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5American Gods: The Tenth Anniversary Edition Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Bell Jar Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cloud Cuckoo Land: A Novel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Name of the Wind Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Omens: A Full Cast Production Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Stardust Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Two Towers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Three-Body Problem Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Warmth of Other Suns: The Epic Story of America's Great Migration Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Dark Tower I: The Gunslinger Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Radiolab: Mixtape: How The Cassette Changed The World Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Everyone in My Family Has Killed Someone: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Their Eyes Were Watching God Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Alchemist Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Overstory Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Neverwhere Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Return of the King Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5American Gods [TV Tie-In]: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Paris Apartment: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ocean at the End of the Lane: A Novel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Finding Me: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for The Tempest Tales
Rating: 3.8615384615384616 out of 5 stars
4/5
65 ratings6 reviews
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Short but deep. Mosley explores the grey times when people down the pecking area of socio-economic means can’t afford to, or need to improvise, right action. And who or how are we to judge?
- Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5A very well-written book, both in its storyline and its lines of Socratic dialogue between Tempest Moseley and his Angel guardian, Joshua. You see, Tempest is shot by some white police officers in Harlem, around about 2008, and he goes up to be judged at the Pearly Gates. Lo and behold, his life of pilfering money from the charity box to give the money to his friends and family, or stealing an insurance card to help a terribly beaten woman get life-saving medical care are seen as grievous sins by Peter. And it is Peter's judgment that Tempest must go below to the realms of hell.Tempest is not too happy about that decision and challenges. He challenges it to the point that he is thrown out of the judgment waiting line and sent back to earth with Joshua Angel to be persuaded to accept his fate. If he does not accept his fate, all of heaven and hell will be upended and cease to exist as they have done so for millennia.And so begins a set of modern-day Socratic dialogues. Instead of walking through Athens, Angel and Tempest sit on park benches, or have coffee at Starbucks, or meet in an apartment and discuss what it is to be poor and black in Harlem. How a low-paying job can pay havoc with trying to get ahead, not just staying ahead of the landlord. How living in fear of others is a day-to-day life experience of black men. How unfair and unjust Tempest's life was, and how he committed his sins for the betterment of others, not just because he had a mean streak or needed to act out his violent rages.The dialogue is raw, the events are timely, and the questions need some pondering. There is absolute good and evil as presented here, but sin and non-sin are questioned, as are some of the individuals who did truly horrible things and did not wind up in hell. And it begs the question: how does the lack of privilege or access to food or schools create an underclass of human beings who are otherwise shunned? And why is there now an us" and "them" mentality and how can it change?
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Tempest Landry is a young man trying to make the best of what life in Harlem has handed him. One day, in a case of mistaken identity, he is shot and killed. When he arrives at the Pearly Gates he is held accountable for his acts, turned away and told he is on his way to Hell. Tempest disagrees with the judgment – he’s not a bad guy. After all didn’t he buy groceries for his aunt when she was ill? Okay, he stole money from the church to do it. And didn’t he stand up in court to help send a man to jail? Okay, the man was innocent but only of that crime. He was a known rapist and murderer and deserved to be jailed. St. Peter cannot be swayed yet Tempest stands his ground and refuses to make his was to Hell. This has never happened before and the precedent could rock the very foundations of Heaven as we know it (if it has foundations to be rocked). Offering St. Peter a compromise Tempest is sent back to his old life (albeit in a different body with a different name) with a guardian angel so that Tempest can come to realize that no error was made in the Heavenly accounting. As the guardian angel attempts to make Tempest see the error of his thinking, Tempest introduces the angel to the grey areas of being a human with free will. Not only that, but Satan is a little miffed that he has lost a soul so he pays a little visit to Harlem as well.
This book was humorous, entertaining and yet thought provoking as well. It raises so many questions about the nature of good and evil, free will, racism and the difference between bending the rules and actual sin. Kudos to Mr. Mosley, as through Tempest, he finds an original and creative solution to a situation that could bring Heaven to its knees. - Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Oddly fascinating. Very bad theology, but an interesting premise. Good one played on Bezal Bob.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A fun, quick read!
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The narrative style of this book reminded me a bit of Langston Hughes' Simple stories.