Title: The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey
By: Walter Mosley
Genre: Fiction
Pages: 277
Release Date: November 11th, 2010
Publisher: Riverhead Books
Rating: ★★★★☆
Summary from Goodreads:
Ptolemy Grey is ninety-one years old and has been all but forgotten-by his family, his friends, even himself-as he sinks into a lonely dementia. His grand-nephew, Ptolemy's only connection to the outside world, was recently killed in a drive-by shooting, and Ptolemy is too suspicious of anyone else to allow them into his life. until he meets Robyn, his niece's seventeen-year-old lodger and the only one willing to take care of an old man at his grandnephew's funeral.
But Robyn will not tolerate Ptolemy's hermitlike existence. She challenges him to interact more with the world around him, and he grasps more firmly onto his disappearing consciousness. However, this new activity pushes Ptolemy into the fold of a doctor touting an experimental drug that guarantees Ptolemy won't live to see age ninety- two but that he'll spend his last days in feverish vigor and clarity. With his mind clear, what Ptolemy finds-in his own past, in his own apartment, and in the circumstances surrounding his grand-nephew's death-is shocking enough to spur an old man to action, and to ensure a legacy that no one will forget.
In The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey, Mosley captures the compromised state of his protagonist's mind with profound sensitivity and insight, and creates an unforgettable pair of characters at the center of a novel that is sure to become a true contemporary classic.
Review:
Everyone needs someone to love them at the end of their lives, and Ptolemy Grey found just that in an unlikely person.
Ptolemy has been forgotten by his family, an old man on the verge of dementia with nothing left to live for. Its not until a special person comes into his life when he needs them the most. Robyn is an amazing character. She wants nothing from Ptolemy, nothing except to care for him until his time has passed. Even when Ptolemy tries to leave everything to Robyn, she refuses to take a cent.
I loved how this story played out and the way the two characters came to love each other like family. This was a sweet quick read and I can't wait to watch the series.
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