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A review by craiglister
Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin
4.0
This book was amazing. It elicited so many emotions in me. As a white man, I’ll never know the struggles people of colour have faced and still face today. But I think this book brought me as close as possible to understanding how it would feel. Going to Meet the Man is my first James Baldwin book, and you can tell he had a very refined style of writing that I can say is timeless. There's a quote in one of the stories that follow:
”Goddammit to hell, I'm sick of it. Can't I get a place to sleep without dragging it through the courts? I'm goddamn tired of battling every Tom, Dick, and Harry for what everyone takes for granted. I'm tired!”
I honestly don't know why but that passage of text just floored me. Something so simple as having somewhere to rest your head at night something we all do take for granted being so hard to obtain and once you got it so hard to keep when you're a person of colour in the ’50s.
So why not five stars? There were a couple of stories that I felt dragged and didn't equal the quality of the stories that came before and after it. For me, five stars means perfect and although if I could have I would have given this 4.5/5 stars as it's close to being perfect. But I must be genuine when I rate a book. Either way, this is a must-read book that I recommend everyone reading when they get a chance. I'm going to want to read more from James Baldwin in the future.
”Goddammit to hell, I'm sick of it. Can't I get a place to sleep without dragging it through the courts? I'm goddamn tired of battling every Tom, Dick, and Harry for what everyone takes for granted. I'm tired!”
I honestly don't know why but that passage of text just floored me. Something so simple as having somewhere to rest your head at night something we all do take for granted being so hard to obtain and once you got it so hard to keep when you're a person of colour in the ’50s.
So why not five stars? There were a couple of stories that I felt dragged and didn't equal the quality of the stories that came before and after it. For me, five stars means perfect and although if I could have I would have given this 4.5/5 stars as it's close to being perfect. But I must be genuine when I rate a book. Either way, this is a must-read book that I recommend everyone reading when they get a chance. I'm going to want to read more from James Baldwin in the future.