Reviews

Baldwin's Harlem: A Biography of James Baldwin by Herb Boyd

nrich_reads's review

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Not the autobiography I wanted. More about his relationship to Harlem, written by a man from Detroit. 

hotlizard's review

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1.0

Firstly, if you are looking for a biography this is not it. It's drivel, not so veiled homophobia, and more than half is just quotations. And worse, most of it is conjecture and opinion, not even well thought out or well written opinion. This author loves to hear himself speak and considering he inserted pages and pages his own interviews in there, you can tell just how much he loves himself.

mythaster's review

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informative fast-paced

3.0

lmurray74's review

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3.0

This is the first James Baldwin bio I've read and I did learn a bit more about him that I haven't read in his non-fiction. I found myself skimming a bit near the end though. Baldwin is such a masterful writer that it must be difficult for another writer to do him justice. I'm not sure if I'll rush to another Baldwin bio anytime soon, my preference is to reach for a Baldwin original and thankfully there's quite a bit of his work I'm still to read.
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