Reviews

Zapiski syna tego kraju by James Baldwin

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kobusu's review against another edition

challenging informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

James Baldwin is a master of the craft, so much so that his documentation and writing of the civil rights movement is as enthralling as it is informative. Brilliant.

fluctuating_planes's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

4.0

emktaylor's review against another edition

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emotional reflective fast-paced

4.5

sarahrose_a's review against another edition

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reflective slow-paced

ninakeller's review against another edition

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reflective medium-paced

5.0

Baldwin’s observations on literature, Hollywood film, and life itself are filled with precise description and insightful analysis. I cannot get enough of his work, and this one is one to read again and again, as he critiques popular culture and politics in relation to racial segregation and injustice at large as well as details of his upbringing and travels, reading, and experiences as an adult, a writer, a Black man in America and abroad. This is the book filled with his oft-quoted lines, like that people cling to hate, because once they let it go, they’d be forced to reckon with pain and that he loves America so deeply that he is compelled to criticize her and demand the fulfillment of her promise, etc.

bluli's review against another edition

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informative inspiring reflective

I already tried to read this book a year ago and couldn't finish it. This time I once again struggled to get through it.
Most essays have an abstract and distant note to them and Baldwin often analyses media (novels, movies, magazines) that I don't know and he doesn't manage to make me care.
What I enjoyed were the essays that have a more personal note, where Baldwin either describes his own journey and experiences or those of others. They were powerful. So if you also see yourself struggling with this collection, I suggest you skip to the following essays:

Journey to Atlanta
Notes of a Native Son
Equal in Paris

I underlined two passages:

I am what time, circumstance, history have made of me, certainly, but I am, also, much more than that. So are we all. (p. XIV)

I imagine that one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, that they will be forced to deal with pain. (p. 103)