The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey: A Novel

Walter Mosley

Nov 2010 · Sold by Penguin

About this ebook

NOW AN APPLE TV+ SERIES STARRING SAMUEL L. JACKSON

The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey is a masterful, moving novel about age, memory, and family from one of the true literary icons of our time.

Marooned in an apartment that overflows with mementos from the past, 91-year-old Ptolemy Grey is all but forgotten by his family and the world. But when an unexpected opportunity arrives, everything changes for Ptolemy in ways as shocking and unanticipated as they are poignant and profound.

Ratings and reviews

Too not clear. What the author is displaying in the character and condition are so real of an older person needing assistance. There are many mental health problems in the condition that the main character is living. Good read!

This is a story about a touching relationship between an old man and the young girl whose kindness and true concern for him reawakens his heart and mind. Her tenderness brings him back to life again so that he can spend his last days “alive” once more, with the memory of his youth, if not the body, so he could settle old scores and protect the ones who were closest to him when he takes his final leave. This sensitive tale of love and loss, humiliation and pride, violence and gentleness, devotion and betrayal, courage and fear, strength and weakness, will stay with you long after you turn the final page. If I had known Ptolemy Grey, he would have enriched my life. Ironically, Ptolemy is a gentle soul, but toward the end of his life, he hopes he has not sold it to the devil. He has a simple but common sense approach to life. He has suffered many tragedies over the years and witnessed the brutality and abuse his race has been subjected to historically. His memories were the “stuff of nightmares.” At 91, with his memory and mind beginning to fray around the edges as dementia steals more and more of his thought processes, and with the weakness of age depriving him of his vitality, he easily became prey for those who were stronger and meaner. Not formally educated, he was still wiser than many of those who were more scholarly. He lived by simple truths and wished only to be surrounded by those that seemed sincere and wanted to give back more than they wished to take. He understood how the cruelty of some experiences could color a person’s decisions and he forgave them when they chose to do wrong, if they had good reasons for that behavior and really were good inside. The book begins and ends with a tender love letter of sorts, and it sets the mood. The author illuminates the loneliness and frustration endured by the elderly as they lose their independence and must rely on others whom they cannot always trust. He presents his story with a prose using the dialect of the poor black community which at first may be hard to follow and may seem confused, but since the main character is confused, it is probably the author’s purpose and is deliberate. A rhythm soon develops and it is no longer a problem to follow the dialogue. Words are spelled phonetically to make it more effective, and it enhances the interaction of the characters as you can hear their conversations in your own mind because of it. He has depicted the black culture perfectly. The descriptions are so vivid that you are sitting in the apartment with Ptolemy as he struggles with his thoughts and as he entertains visitors, as he walks down the street with the fear of being attacked by assailants, and as he feels the strong emotional pull and impact of his love for those dear to him and those in his memories of love long gone. As he travels through his past through his dreams and thoughts, we learn about the highlights of his life. With brief anecdotes, we learn how he perceives the world and we witness the injustices and decline of morality coupled with the decay of societies infrastructure and principles. His apartment, like his mind, is cluttered and unkempt. Until 17 year old Robyn enters his life, no one really cared about whether his environment was clean and safe, whether or not he had good hygiene, whether or not his diet was adequate. Her genuine concern when she first meets and engages him in conversation, manages to awaken his mind briefly. Later, drugs enable him to think more clearly, temporarily, but basically, most of the time, this 91 year old man had been left to languish in his apartment, all alone, as his mind degenerated, and he fell deeper and deeper into a state of senility. We are with Ptolemy when he can’t turn the TV off for fear of not knowing how to turn it on again. We see how he only locks one door when he goes out although he has four locks on his door. He only uses all of them when he is inside the apartment because he is afraid that when he leaves, if they are all locked, he will not remember how to get back inside when

Mosley's best known and acclaimed for his mystery novels set in postwar L.A. with its underlying racial tensions. Occasionally, he transgresses into the role of a paperback philosopher-medicine man offering his diagnosis, prescription, and prognosis for pervasive social and racial ailments. Taking his fourth diversion into this realm, Mosley offers another stylized commentary with little redemptive quality and makes a rather weak contribution to the American racial debate. J.P. Miller, Cambridge, MA.

About the author

Walter Mosley is one of America’s most celebrated, beloved, and bestselling writers. His books have been translated into at least twenty-one languages, and have won numerous awards. Born in Los Angeles, Mosley lives in New York City.