Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Another Country by James Baldwin

16 reviews

freckled_frog_boi's review against another edition

5.0

This is probably the most raw depiction of love (in its many forms: familial, sexual, platonic, etc) I've ever seen. It's a mess. It's angry. It's heartbreaking. It's disgusting. Of it's time and also transcends it. 

I was going to originally start this review with "messy bitches doing their messy bitch activities" but I think we find a lil bit of ourselves, maybe the parts we dislike the most, in these characters in some form. Turns out, we were the messy bitches all along. That said, everyone in here could benefit from a few years of therapy and couple's counseling. An intervention or two. 

This definitely warrants a reread, and I highly recommend listening to the music mentioned in the book while reading. It's such a curated vibe that Baldwin put together that I fear I will never hear Cigarettes and Coffee by Otis Redding without thinking about this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and Classism

cmcrockford's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Going full five here, the last fifty to sixty pages are just extraordinary writing about love and race and sex and fidelity and really salvation. So far this is the best Baldwin novel I've read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Cursing, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Grief, Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Vomit

This must have driven people in 1962 into an absolute frenzy.

moranguinhos's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Racism, and Grief

marko_22's review against another edition

emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Infidelity, Racism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Grief

Minor: Physical abuse

pupaebug's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is my fourth James Baldwin novel. I have been in love with his writing style for a while now. Baldwin captures intimacy and the human condition with so much complexity and tenderness, and in a way that makes reading from other writers just absolutely pale in comparison. 

This book is the Baldwin novel I felt most excited to read since Giovanni's room. This novel was really slow at first. It took me a while to become interested in the large cast of characters, and the somewhat nonlinear narrative at the beginning of the book. 

However, after the third act, when Eric came back to NYC, I couldn't put the book down. This book felt so ahead of its time in its discussion of the nuances of race and sexuality in intimate relationships. Every single character was struggling with something, and every single character had made mistakes and done things that hurt other people, but I loved and I understood all of them. Baldwin does an incredible job of giving his characters such humanity and depth. 

I also loved the way that this book started slowly, then everything began to simmer until the tension between the characters became so unbearable that everything came out at a climax toward the end of the book. At the beginning, when I felt I was being introduced to the characters and their intricacies and relationships with one another, I could put the book down and not think about it for a while. But once shit hit the fan per say, I needed to consume every word on the page, insatiably. It was an unexpectedly riveting story.

Anyway, I loved this book and these characters. This was a beautiful story of Blackness, Whiteness, masculinity, bisexuality,

infidelity

, and love, and it was a deeply touching look at humanity through these complicated and messed-up people.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Moderate: Homophobia, Racism, Rape, and Grief

Minor: Drug use

mayze's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Biphobia, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Homophobia, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Another amazing book by James Baldwin. Another Country tells the story of a social circle of NYC bohemians in the 1950s. Rufus a black jazz musician, Vivaldo an Irish-Italian write, Cass a wealthy liberal housewife, Ida a singer and Rufus' younger sister and Eric, an actor who just returned from some time off in France. While reading this book it's easy to understand why it's held in such high regard. The gripping writing and its clever way to interweaving different themes (racism, sexism, homosexuality/bissexuality) was decades ahead of its time and still does it better than the average book who tries to connect themes today. The characters were well written, they all have clear faults (some of them heinous) and even though none of them were overall likeable, I didn't find them particularly unlikeable either. They just felt like three-dimensional characters were the complexity and themes of the plot make some of their actions understandable from their POV. As usual, Baldwin's descriptions of NYC are very effective, you can easily picture Seventh Avenue, the dive bars the characters are fond of, coast towns in Southern France, and even how chaotic and smelly the characters' living quarters are. I highly recommend this, it's very uncomfortable at times but I feel that readers can learn a lot from it and easily put themselves in the characters' shoes even if they don't necessarily agree with their actions.

lazlio's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Suicide attempt, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Toxic friendship, Alcohol, and Sexual harassment

slayalicious's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective 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? Yes

3.5

The book is meant for a certain type of person who loves literature and can withstand the boring parts and long chapters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, and Alcohol

bg_oseman_fan's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? Yes

4.0

This book was a well written but challenging read. At times it was hard to parse the emotions of the characters, which seems so volatile. Modern readers might struggle to understand the way Baldwin writes about love and sexuality if the context of the period he is writing in is not taken into account. the human heart and mind are strange and complex creatures, and Baldwin’s writing makes clear how muddled and confusing that make our world. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Addiction, Alcoholism, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, and Alcohol

ryankaybee's review against another edition

challenging dark 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Racial slurs, Racism, Violence, and Grief