January 19, 2015
Tempest Landry, the black man killed (mistakenly) by police in Harlem in Mosley's The Tempest Tales (2008), is still on earth, having successfully refused to accept St. Peter's judgment of hell, but he now occupies the imprisoned body of convicted felon Ezzard Walcott. Joshua Angel, the Accounting Angel of Sin, must persuade Tempest to accept St. Peter's judgment, or his decision "could tear down the walls of heaven." Mosley makes the most of this premise with vignettes illustrating injustices: different rules for those with money and those without; a man imprisoned for 42 years for killing the man who beat and raped his daughter ; a man who robbed to feed his family; a felon searching for a job. Tempest is a powerful advocate for common sense and life experience; Joshua is a conflicted angel becoming more human and less celestial the more he talks with Tempest. Tempest, an effective everyman intimately aware of our system's injustices, opens Joshua's eyes in their artful and amusing exchanges. Agent: Gloria Loomis, Watkins Loomis Agency.