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_pitseleh's review
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
simmonsmry's review against another edition
challenging
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
frankiereadstoomuch's review
challenging
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
Required reading for a literature class
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Addiction, Child death, Racial slurs, Drug abuse, Classism, Violence, Body horror, Grief, Racism, and Hate crime
unladylike's review
3.0
Compared to the other five or six Baldwin books I've digested via audiobook recently, I would consider this one only recommended for completists. The first couple short stories in this collection made me wonder just *what* they were about. They failed to grab me and I felt "Jimmy" was working out his voice and style. The version I listened to was read by the same incredible Dion Graham that narrated [b:Another Country|7096984|Another Country|James Baldwin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1257320866l/7096984._SX50_.jpg|1427427], which is so far my favorite of his fiction writings.
Jimmy Baldwin's fictional stories - nearly every single one of them I've read other than the final, eponymous short in this collection - describe insightful and intimate conversations and innermost thoughts while the characters drink copious amounts of alcohol late into the night. It's almost shocking how much of his writing is doing just that, while always maintaining a serious tone of dramas based on real-world anti-blackness. He imagines so vividly even heterosexual relationships that he perhaps never had (though I suspect he did, and might more accurately be called bi or queer than simply "gay" or "homosexual"), as well as the conflicted and painful inner thoughts and knee-jerk actions of people who believe they are white.
Jimmy Baldwin's fictional stories - nearly every single one of them I've read other than the final, eponymous short in this collection - describe insightful and intimate conversations and innermost thoughts while the characters drink copious amounts of alcohol late into the night. It's almost shocking how much of his writing is doing just that, while always maintaining a serious tone of dramas based on real-world anti-blackness. He imagines so vividly even heterosexual relationships that he perhaps never had (though I suspect he did, and might more accurately be called bi or queer than simply "gay" or "homosexual"), as well as the conflicted and painful inner thoughts and knee-jerk actions of people who believe they are white.
heathercc89's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
kevin_shepherd's review
5.0
The American Dream
“A big, sandy-haired man held his daughter on his shoulders, showing her the Statue of Liberty. I would never know what this statue meant to others, she had always been an ugly joke for me. And the American flag was flying from the top of the ship, above my head. I had seen the French flag drive the French into the most unspeakable frenzies, I had seen the flag which was nominally mine used to dignify the vilest purposes: now I would never, as long as I lived, know what others saw when they saw a flag.”
Faith, Country, and the color of your skin
“…everyone’s life begins on a level where races, armies, and churches stop. And yet everyone’s life is always shaped by races, churches and armies; races, churches, armies menace, and have taken many lives.”
In reading Baldwin, I am reminded of an old photo I once saw. A snapshot of a small crowd posing on an old bridge. There are men and women. There are summer frocks and straw hats and a few smiles. Beneath the bridge there are two people, a man and a woman, suspended by ropes. The people standing on the bridge are all white, the people hanging beneath the bridge are not.
This, my introduction to the works of James Baldwin, has left me somewhat speechless. His prose is minimal and simple and yet so powerful that you can almost smell the sweat and taste the blood. There is no trace of sensationalism in his words, just a stark, matter-of-fact narrative that hollows out your insides.
“A big, sandy-haired man held his daughter on his shoulders, showing her the Statue of Liberty. I would never know what this statue meant to others, she had always been an ugly joke for me. And the American flag was flying from the top of the ship, above my head. I had seen the French flag drive the French into the most unspeakable frenzies, I had seen the flag which was nominally mine used to dignify the vilest purposes: now I would never, as long as I lived, know what others saw when they saw a flag.”
Faith, Country, and the color of your skin
“…everyone’s life begins on a level where races, armies, and churches stop. And yet everyone’s life is always shaped by races, churches and armies; races, churches, armies menace, and have taken many lives.”
In reading Baldwin, I am reminded of an old photo I once saw. A snapshot of a small crowd posing on an old bridge. There are men and women. There are summer frocks and straw hats and a few smiles. Beneath the bridge there are two people, a man and a woman, suspended by ropes. The people standing on the bridge are all white, the people hanging beneath the bridge are not.
This, my introduction to the works of James Baldwin, has left me somewhat speechless. His prose is minimal and simple and yet so powerful that you can almost smell the sweat and taste the blood. There is no trace of sensationalism in his words, just a stark, matter-of-fact narrative that hollows out your insides.
ericawrites's review
5.0
Whenever I pick up Baldwin's work, his prose blows me away. Every sentence is full of depth, meaning, and atmosphere. Baldwin builds tension in each story and never lets you go until the end.
But the tension and often bleak narratives meant I did pace myself with this collection, reading only one or two stories every day and letting the individual stories soak in as unique pieces.
"The Rockpile" and "The Outing" are pieces about the family and the Pentecostal religion that make up his book Go Tell It on the Mountain. "Previous Condition" reads like it's out of Another Country. I felt each book while enjoying these shorts for the first time.
What stood out to me, amongst this collection, was Baldwin's laying of sexuality from queerness to genuine sexual connection to fetishization and bigotry. You wonder how "The Man Child" would've played out if Jamie could've channeled his desires into love instead of hate/jealousy over a child. Or what would've happened in the horrors of "Going to Meet the Man." Bigots are very obsessed with those they hate.
"Come Out the Wilderness" was probably the weakest story. Baldwin has been critiqued for his treatment of women in stories, and here, I didn't find it misogynistic so much as Baldwin not understanding women's desires and motivations, which in many of his stories revolve around them wanting/seeking/having/caring for men. (Not that (some) women don't, but more that they have other priorities and concerns outside of that.) I always wonder how much of this mistranslation came from the conflagration at the time (and sometimes currently) of gay men being similar to (straight) women because they desire men. I think of this, too, in relation to my writing and gender.
"Sonny's Blues" was my favorite story and a clear standout in the collection. Here, a brother makes room in his life to support his recovering from heroin-addicted brother. The precarious nature of sibling structures, how well you know your sibling, and how far apart you can be in nature felt very true to life. While Baldwin's stories often deal with the things people use to escape the world's hardness (church, drugs, etc.), "Sonny's Blues" gives us an escape through music and a rare redemption. Maybe the brother won't stay sober forever. But at this moment, the blues gives him what's resplendent.
But the tension and often bleak narratives meant I did pace myself with this collection, reading only one or two stories every day and letting the individual stories soak in as unique pieces.
"The Rockpile" and "The Outing" are pieces about the family and the Pentecostal religion that make up his book Go Tell It on the Mountain. "Previous Condition" reads like it's out of Another Country. I felt each book while enjoying these shorts for the first time.
What stood out to me, amongst this collection, was Baldwin's laying of sexuality from queerness to genuine sexual connection to fetishization and bigotry. You wonder how "The Man Child" would've played out if Jamie could've channeled his desires into love instead of hate/jealousy over a child. Or what would've happened in the horrors of "Going to Meet the Man." Bigots are very obsessed with those they hate.
"Come Out the Wilderness" was probably the weakest story. Baldwin has been critiqued for his treatment of women in stories, and here, I didn't find it misogynistic so much as Baldwin not understanding women's desires and motivations, which in many of his stories revolve around them wanting/seeking/having/caring for men. (Not that (some) women don't, but more that they have other priorities and concerns outside of that.) I always wonder how much of this mistranslation came from the conflagration at the time (and sometimes currently) of gay men being similar to (straight) women because they desire men. I think of this, too, in relation to my writing and gender.
"Sonny's Blues" was my favorite story and a clear standout in the collection. Here, a brother makes room in his life to support his recovering from heroin-addicted brother. The precarious nature of sibling structures, how well you know your sibling, and how far apart you can be in nature felt very true to life. While Baldwin's stories often deal with the things people use to escape the world's hardness (church, drugs, etc.), "Sonny's Blues" gives us an escape through music and a rare redemption. Maybe the brother won't stay sober forever. But at this moment, the blues gives him what's resplendent.
mattleesharp's review
5.0
There was a weak story or two, but the strong ones are like better than perfect. James Baldwin was the most effective English language writer in history. Don't @ me.