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niamhyjay's review against another edition
challenging
dark
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
4.5
adperfectamconsilium's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
informative
medium-paced
5.0
89 pages of some incredibly powerful writing. Two essays in the form of letters
The first is a short one called My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation.
' You were born into a society which spelled out with brutal clarity, and in as many ways as possible, that you were a worthless human being. You were not expected to aspire to excellence: you were expected to make peace with mediocrity. '
It's a passionate piece about racial acceptance and integration.
The second piece taking up the majority of the book is called Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region in My Mind.
This essay takes a look at Baldwin's early life in Harlem. It may have been a 'free city' compared to the segregation that still existed in the south but it's an intense indictment of the racial prejudice of the time, the legacy of slavery, the rise of the civil rights movement and the role of religion.
It's a plea to the nation to end the disparity between black and white.
'Colour is not a human or a personal reality; it is a political reality.'
First published in 1963 and all these years later humans still have so far to go to realise their potential and create a better, fair world.
Highly recommended.
The first is a short one called My Dungeon Shook: Letter to My Nephew on the One Hundredth Anniversary of the Emancipation.
' You were born into a society which spelled out with brutal clarity, and in as many ways as possible, that you were a worthless human being. You were not expected to aspire to excellence: you were expected to make peace with mediocrity. '
It's a passionate piece about racial acceptance and integration.
The second piece taking up the majority of the book is called Down at the Cross: Letter from a Region in My Mind.
This essay takes a look at Baldwin's early life in Harlem. It may have been a 'free city' compared to the segregation that still existed in the south but it's an intense indictment of the racial prejudice of the time, the legacy of slavery, the rise of the civil rights movement and the role of religion.
It's a plea to the nation to end the disparity between black and white.
'Colour is not a human or a personal reality; it is a political reality.'
First published in 1963 and all these years later humans still have so far to go to realise their potential and create a better, fair world.
Highly recommended.
_ottavia_'s review against another edition
4.0
Life is tragic simply because the Earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time. Perhaps the whole root of our trouble, the human trouble, is that we will sacrifice all the beauty of our lives, will imprison ourselves in totems, taboos, crosses, blood sacrifices, steeples, mosques, races, armies, flags, nations, in order to deny the fact of death, which is the only fact we have. It seems to me that one ought to rejoice in the fact of death, ought to decide, indeed, to earn one's death by confronting with passion the conundrum of life.
I really loved the first essay, and found a little bit more difficult to understand the second one. It's true that I'm as far as possible from the reality described in this book and I'm sure that's the reason.
I've decided that I'll try again to read it, in a few years, and maybe I'll understand it better.
But it's a great, important book, and magnificently written.
I really loved the first essay, and found a little bit more difficult to understand the second one. It's true that I'm as far as possible from the reality described in this book and I'm sure that's the reason.
I've decided that I'll try again to read it, in a few years, and maybe I'll understand it better.
But it's a great, important book, and magnificently written.
alexgutuu's review against another edition
5.0
I find that there is a beautiful dicotomy between the delightful writing style and the powerful message that is in full view of the reader - that one, in the time in which this book was written, might have had a hard time to digest.
Writing a review seems almost impossible as I have been left with no words to describe how important this book is. However, in the words of James Baldwin himself:
"But in our time, as in every time, the impossible is the least that one can demand—and one is, after all, emboldened by the spectacle of human history in general, and American Negro history in particular, for it testifies to nothing less than the perpetual achievement of the impossible."
Lastly, since this is one of the first reviews I have challenged myself to write, I would like to bring to the spotlight the first highlights I made to the text. In a letter to his nephew, referring to the young boy's grandfather, the author writes:
"Well, he is dead, he never saw you, and he had a terrible life; he was defeated long before he died because, at the bottom of his heart, he really believed what white people said about him."
Sadly, a timeless book, but that fact does not take away the importance of it, but rather engrains it even more.
Writing a review seems almost impossible as I have been left with no words to describe how important this book is. However, in the words of James Baldwin himself:
"But in our time, as in every time, the impossible is the least that one can demand—and one is, after all, emboldened by the spectacle of human history in general, and American Negro history in particular, for it testifies to nothing less than the perpetual achievement of the impossible."
Lastly, since this is one of the first reviews I have challenged myself to write, I would like to bring to the spotlight the first highlights I made to the text. In a letter to his nephew, referring to the young boy's grandfather, the author writes:
"Well, he is dead, he never saw you, and he had a terrible life; he was defeated long before he died because, at the bottom of his heart, he really believed what white people said about him."
Sadly, a timeless book, but that fact does not take away the importance of it, but rather engrains it even more.