I'd never read any James Baldwin before reading this and I found this story really engrossing and alive. I enjoyed the repeated motifs of darkness that regularly set over the story and obscured characters, and the spoken language, and the way the writing vividly evoked smells and sounds for me without actually describing them.
I really love that this was your first reading of Baldwin and am so glad you liked it and found it engrossing. Thanks so much for reading along with me!
I've had a pocketsize copy of this since the mid-nineties, and despite numerous house moves and clear outs, it's always remained. I remember first reading it and finding myself in a place far away in time and space to my own life (a 20-something white guy living in a Yorkshire village) and being left with no uncertainty that that place was real and hard, and lives there were anything but easy. I return to it every few years, and it gets me every time. Thanks, for prompting another read! And for the interesting write-up, it made me consider things I hadn't before, especially how time is used.
I'd never read any James Baldwin before reading this and I found this story really engrossing and alive. I enjoyed the repeated motifs of darkness that regularly set over the story and obscured characters, and the spoken language, and the way the writing vividly evoked smells and sounds for me without actually describing them.
Thanks for including this story.
I really love that this was your first reading of Baldwin and am so glad you liked it and found it engrossing. Thanks so much for reading along with me!
I've had a pocketsize copy of this since the mid-nineties, and despite numerous house moves and clear outs, it's always remained. I remember first reading it and finding myself in a place far away in time and space to my own life (a 20-something white guy living in a Yorkshire village) and being left with no uncertainty that that place was real and hard, and lives there were anything but easy. I return to it every few years, and it gets me every time. Thanks, for prompting another read! And for the interesting write-up, it made me consider things I hadn't before, especially how time is used.