Twelve Steps Toward Political Revelation

by Walter Mosley

Overview

In his late teens and early twenties, Walter Mosley was addicted to alcohol and cigarettes. Drawing from this intimate knowledge of addiction and recovery, Mosley explores the deviances of contemporary America and describes a society in thrall to its own consumption. Although Americans live in the richest country on earth, many citizens exist on the brink of poverty, and from that profound economic inequality stems self-destructive behavior.

In Twelve Steps to Political Revelation, Mosley outlines a guide to recovery from oppression. First we must identify the problems that surround us. Next we must actively work together to create a just, more holistic society. And finally, power must be returned to the embrace of the people.

Challenging and original, Recovery confronts both self-understanding and how we define ourselves in relation to others.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781568586427
Publisher:	PublicAffairs
Publication date:	04/26/2011
Pages:	112
Sales rank:	853,303
Product dimensions:	7.26(w) x 5.00(h) x 0.31(d)
Age Range:	13 - 18 Years

About the Author

Walter Mosley is one of America's most celebrated and beloved writers. A Grand Master of the Mystery Writers of America, he has won numerous awards, including the Anisfield-Wolf Award, a Grammy, a PEN USA's Lifetime Achievement Award, and several NAACP Image Awards. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages. His short fiction has appeared in a wide array of publications, including the New Yorker, GQ, Esquire, Los Angeles Times Magazine, and Playboy, and his nonfiction has been published in the New York Times Book Review, the New York Times Magazine, Newsweek, and the Nation. He is the author of, most recently, Down the River unto the Sea. He lives in New York City.

Hometown:

New York, New York

Date of Birth:

January 12, 1952

Place of Birth:

Los Angeles, California

Education:

B.A., Johnson State College

Website:

http://www.waltermosley.com

Editorial Reviews

Mosley's slim manifesto aims to foment an American "intellectual revolution," but it offers few original ideas toward realizing that end. Linking personal unhappiness to political disenfranchisement, the acclaimed thriller writer of the Easy Rawlins series, prescribes a 12-step program for kicking "Americanism"—an addictive and pernicious ideology that encourages "tolerance to lies, worldwide aggression... pain and lifelong unhappiness." Social ills can be cured through communication: dialogue between the young and old, between friends, between people who have a single political agenda in common—the last through a semi-conceived Web site he calls "Democracy Initiative." Elsewhere, Mosley's "steps toward revolution" might be better defined as banal exercises in self-help (he argues that therapy can be a tool for political change because it is a safe space for "revolutionary exchanges" and attaining objectivity), recapping Marx, or well-intentioned irrelevance (it's "the responsibility of every person in the nation to tell the truth at least once a day"). Though Mosley is admirably candid about his own struggles with addiction and depression, and his prose can sing, as a catalyst the book is more likely to spark frustration than epiphany (May)

Publishers Weekly

Mosley (The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey) is best known for his mystery novels, but he is also an accomplished political essayist with keen insights into the state of our nation. In this short book, using his own experiences as a former abuser of alcohol, he offers his own 12-step program of redemption that he hopes will produce a new paradigm in which true democracy flourishes. Mosley scoffs at the idea that true democracy already exists in America but holds to the belief that one day soon the Internet will free us by allowing political organizing outside the traditional two-party system. Some readers may be turned off by Mosley's emphasis on class struggle. (For example, he calls for a limit of a ten-percent profit on goods sold.) But there can be no doubt that this author writes well. VERDICT Regardless of one's political point of view, it is refreshing to read a book on social issues written with the flair of a novelist. Those interested in keeping up with the state of our country will enjoy, along with fans of Mosley's fiction.—Robert Bruce Slater, Stroudsburg, PA

Library Journal