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poetics 's review for:
Going to Meet the Man
by James Baldwin
Baldwin does this thing in this collection of stories (the titular story excluded) where he leaves you wanting so much more out of the lives of these characters. I especially felt that with Sonny's Blues; This Morning, This Evening, So Soon; and Come Out the Wilderness. He could have expanded each of those stories into whole novels and I would have readily devoured them. The characters are wholly and simply human, complicated in just the right fashion to let you know that you can go out into the street and meet them there.
The last story, Going to Meet the Man, is written with such frightening and chilling accuracy that I could hardly stomach it. Baldwin easily captures the psyche of a racist, depraved, southern sheriff and you almost wonder how. I hadn't expected it, and it's left me thinking about the capacity for cruelty in people just based on the color of someone's skin.
The last story, Going to Meet the Man, is written with such frightening and chilling accuracy that I could hardly stomach it. Baldwin easily captures the psyche of a racist, depraved, southern sheriff and you almost wonder how. I hadn't expected it, and it's left me thinking about the capacity for cruelty in people just based on the color of someone's skin.