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A review by ojtheviking
If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin
5.0
This is a bittersweet story. A love story smack dab in the middle of the harsh reality of certain aspects of society, especially in the US. Injustice, racial profiling, cops always going after the black man first regardless of the circumstances, and so on. And in the middle of it all, you have a young couple in love - Tish and Fonny - who are trying to keep their love, and their chances to become a family, alive.
The thematic contrasts are in and of themselves beautiful, here. The novel touches upon some fairly brutal topics, to such a degree that it in many ways has the makings of a very bleak and desperate story. But somehow, Baldwin still manages to make a love story work within this setting. Tish and Fonny are so devoted to each other even when it seems like the whole world is against them, which to me makes their connection all the more romantic, but also all the more heartbreaking.
Recently, I've read The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, and some of the same topics were present there, but presented in a much more brutal, to-the-point, and in-your-face way. However, I think it should be taken into consideration that Baldwin's novel was written over 40 years prior, at a time when touching upon these topics was perhaps even riskier than now, and as such, I still say that Baldwin is far from subtle, and it is very easy to understand why he is considered one of the most influential writers and social critics. As a side note, it's also a very sad fact that the same hatred towards the African-American community is still written about several decades later. If you knew nothing about the years these two novels were published, they both might as well have been written in the same year.
It's just that there's a certain softness and sensibility to his writing that adds to the aforementioned bittersweetness, and adds a very classic sense of romance in his novel compared to something like Thomas' story. In addition to being an anti-imperialist, and black queer advocate, Baldwin was also a feminist, which I'd say gives him an advantage when it comes to male authors writing female characters. He avoids the standard male gaze, and he tells the story through Tish's point of view with such ease and respect, that I might have guessed this was written by a female author if I had been handed this novel with the author's name blotted out.
I've always heard this novel being mentioned as one of the great, timeless classics, and having finally read it, I certainly understand why. And I consider this to be one of those page-turners you'll have trouble putting down once you get started. (The only reason why it took me a while to finish it was because I was preoccupied for several days in between reading sessions; this could have easily taken me just a day or two otherwise)
The thematic contrasts are in and of themselves beautiful, here. The novel touches upon some fairly brutal topics, to such a degree that it in many ways has the makings of a very bleak and desperate story. But somehow, Baldwin still manages to make a love story work within this setting. Tish and Fonny are so devoted to each other even when it seems like the whole world is against them, which to me makes their connection all the more romantic, but also all the more heartbreaking.
Recently, I've read The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, and some of the same topics were present there, but presented in a much more brutal, to-the-point, and in-your-face way. However, I think it should be taken into consideration that Baldwin's novel was written over 40 years prior, at a time when touching upon these topics was perhaps even riskier than now, and as such, I still say that Baldwin is far from subtle, and it is very easy to understand why he is considered one of the most influential writers and social critics. As a side note, it's also a very sad fact that the same hatred towards the African-American community is still written about several decades later. If you knew nothing about the years these two novels were published, they both might as well have been written in the same year.
It's just that there's a certain softness and sensibility to his writing that adds to the aforementioned bittersweetness, and adds a very classic sense of romance in his novel compared to something like Thomas' story. In addition to being an anti-imperialist, and black queer advocate, Baldwin was also a feminist, which I'd say gives him an advantage when it comes to male authors writing female characters. He avoids the standard male gaze, and he tells the story through Tish's point of view with such ease and respect, that I might have guessed this was written by a female author if I had been handed this novel with the author's name blotted out.
I've always heard this novel being mentioned as one of the great, timeless classics, and having finally read it, I certainly understand why. And I consider this to be one of those page-turners you'll have trouble putting down once you get started. (The only reason why it took me a while to finish it was because I was preoccupied for several days in between reading sessions; this could have easily taken me just a day or two otherwise)