Walter Moslem’s thought provoking novel in-stories The Tempest Tales is the story of Tempest a man mistaken for another and accidentally shot by police. In heaven St Peter tells him that because of his sins he is sentenced to hell.
Tempest takes exception to the judgement and refuses to go to hell. St. Peter’s judgement had never before been questioned and he knew that mortals must accept their sins in order to receive their sentence. So he releases Tempest back to earth in a new body and with an accounting angel whose job is to persuade Tempest to recognize his sins and admit to them and accept St. Peter’s judgement. The story becomes a philosophical commentary on right and wrong, free will, class-ism, racism and sin.
The book club loved this novel. The average rating for the book was 4.6 out of 5. Everyone enjoyed Mosley’s style. They felt that telling the novel in a series of short stories flowed very well so much so that a few of the members didn’t even realize that each chapter was a separate short story.
One of the major themes running through this novel was that you can’t judge a man without walking in his shoes. The accounting angel learned this lesson while trying to teach Tempest the lessons of heaven. The book club liked Tempest character. He tried to balance his wrongs by doing them for good reasons. Like a Robin Hood he stole from the rich to help the poor and unfortunate. But according to heaven he still stole which was a sin. The book club debated on what sin was and why we have free will. Is making a mistake sin? According to St. Peter and heaven, it is. We saw heaven as a symbol of the government who doesn’t take into consideration the conditions that its people are suffering under before judging them. Some members said that society dictates what’s right/wrong and that it’s all learned behavior. Other members argued that we still have an innate sense of morality. Like animals we do have an instinctual mind. Animals don’t sin they have a sense of what is expected of them without free will. So free will is the problem.
Book club members thought it was clever that Tempest was Black man while the devil in the novel was a portrayed as a white man. Although Angel was Black as well some members pictured him as being white because of his attitude toward Tempest and our mental conditioning of thinking that celestial beings are Caucasian.
The book club loved this novel and would definitely add it to our list of recommended reads.
