A review by ninakeller
Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin

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.