Go Tell It on the Mountain, by James Baldwin
Published: 1953 (My copy, Library of America 1998)
215 pages
Go Tell It on the Mountain tells the story, rooted in Baldwin's own experience, of coming of age in 1930's Harlem. Ten years in the writing, its exploration of religious, sexual, and generational conflicts was described by Baldwin as "an attempt to exorcise something, to find out what happened to my father, what happened to all of us." (From the inside flap)
Review: This is the type of book I was hoping to be assigned when I joined this group. Not just a good book that I probably wouldn't have otherwise read, but a good book that I think my life would have been poorer if I'd never read it.
It gives the reader an uncomfortably honest look at the roles race, religion, and sex play in shaping these characters and how it affects the relationships between them. And despite the fact that I really don't have much in common with these characters, I still felt a strong connection to them.
This book definitely belongs on this list.
215 pages
Go Tell It on the Mountain tells the story, rooted in Baldwin's own experience, of coming of age in 1930's Harlem. Ten years in the writing, its exploration of religious, sexual, and generational conflicts was described by Baldwin as "an attempt to exorcise something, to find out what happened to my father, what happened to all of us." (From the inside flap)
Review: This is the type of book I was hoping to be assigned when I joined this group. Not just a good book that I probably wouldn't have otherwise read, but a good book that I think my life would have been poorer if I'd never read it.
It gives the reader an uncomfortably honest look at the roles race, religion, and sex play in shaping these characters and how it affects the relationships between them. And despite the fact that I really don't have much in common with these characters, I still felt a strong connection to them.
This book definitely belongs on this list.