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A review by alexgutuu
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
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.