A review by _ottavia_
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

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.