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A review by jonscott9
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
5.0
Written as two letters, the second much longer than the first, this James Baldwin read served as my introduction to his writing. About that I'm more than moderately embarrassed, but here I am, with Notes on a Native Son on deck as of finishing. In all things, progress.
Before anything else, I'll share that it was surreal to see Baldwin's extended thoughts on Russia from 60 years ago. A good deal of that passage could have been cribbed from an author's point of view in recent years, months, days. Tragic how history repeats itself, how it seethes below the surface until a villain at the helm rises to strike the vulnerable.
What to say? This was a short but staggering book, and it taught me a lot about the trials of Black people in America. Baldwin's life was intersectional – that's a word Kimberlé Crenshaw wouldn't coin until 1989 – and so were his perspectives, as only they could be, as a writer, Black and gay in America in the midst of the civil rights movement. Baldwin was in his 30s, his stride, during that time, as he passed at age 63 in 1987. (Is it ever wild to anyone else that we get to overlap in breathing this world's air, even when it's for just a couple years, with such icons, these titans of the written word, of culture and criticism? I guess many today are icons in the making, stewards of our nation's and our globe's story.)
Baldwin's writing is clear and precise, beautiful but no-frills. His thinking is complex and simple at the same time, and so appreciated. I'm giddy but realistic about delving into the rest of his oeuvre, though 1) that word seems trite for his body of work and 2) honestly, reading him is difficult, as his books are compact but heavy with the weight of a range of things. I wouldn't want to be a Black man in the 1960s, and I wouldn't want to be a gay man then; so of course, I find it hard to fathom how a Black gay man got through in those years, but he sure did go not around but through it.
Baldwin's interactions with Elijah Muhammad and thoughts on Malcolm X (assassinated at age 39) are fascinating and revealing. I won't opine further on those, nor a few other things that have stuck with me, as I won't do any of it justice here and find everyone should read this small but mighty tome for themself. Please do that.
Before anything else, I'll share that it was surreal to see Baldwin's extended thoughts on Russia from 60 years ago. A good deal of that passage could have been cribbed from an author's point of view in recent years, months, days. Tragic how history repeats itself, how it seethes below the surface until a villain at the helm rises to strike the vulnerable.
What to say? This was a short but staggering book, and it taught me a lot about the trials of Black people in America. Baldwin's life was intersectional – that's a word Kimberlé Crenshaw wouldn't coin until 1989 – and so were his perspectives, as only they could be, as a writer, Black and gay in America in the midst of the civil rights movement. Baldwin was in his 30s, his stride, during that time, as he passed at age 63 in 1987. (Is it ever wild to anyone else that we get to overlap in breathing this world's air, even when it's for just a couple years, with such icons, these titans of the written word, of culture and criticism? I guess many today are icons in the making, stewards of our nation's and our globe's story.)
Baldwin's writing is clear and precise, beautiful but no-frills. His thinking is complex and simple at the same time, and so appreciated. I'm giddy but realistic about delving into the rest of his oeuvre, though 1) that word seems trite for his body of work and 2) honestly, reading him is difficult, as his books are compact but heavy with the weight of a range of things. I wouldn't want to be a Black man in the 1960s, and I wouldn't want to be a gay man then; so of course, I find it hard to fathom how a Black gay man got through in those years, but he sure did go not around but through it.
Baldwin's interactions with Elijah Muhammad and thoughts on Malcolm X (assassinated at age 39) are fascinating and revealing. I won't opine further on those, nor a few other things that have stuck with me, as I won't do any of it justice here and find everyone should read this small but mighty tome for themself. Please do that.