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Go Tell it on the Mountain

by James Baldwin

3.85 · rating details · 5,973 ratings · 361 reviews

James Baldwin's stunning first novel is now an American classic. With startling realism that brings Harlem and the black experience vividly to life, this is a work that touches the heart with emotion while it stimulates the mind with its narrative style, symbolism, and excoriating vision of racism in America.

Moving through time from the rural South to the north...more

Paperback, 240 pages

Published June 13th 2000 by Dial Press Trade Paperback (first published 1953)

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Jan 09, 2008

Christy rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: african-american-lit-and-history, readinglist1

James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain, an autobiographical novel first published in 1952, is a beautifully written exploration of religious experience in African American life, both North and South. The primary narrative covers less than 24 hours and is focused by the central character's 14th birthday and religious conversion experience. The book is divided into three sections: "The Seventh Day," which focuses on John Grimes, our 14-year-old protagonist, and his decision to turn a...moreJames Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain, an autobiographical novel first published in 1952, is a beautifully written exploration of religious experience in African American life, both North and South. The primary narrative covers less than 24 hours and is focused by the central character's 14th birthday and religious conversion experience. The book is divided into three sections: "The Seventh Day," which focuses on John Grimes, our 14-year-old protagonist, and his decision to turn away from his father's religion; "The Prayers of the Saints," which takes place during a revival style church service and includes the prayers, pasts, and current experiences of John's aunt Florence, his father Gabriel, and his mother Elizabeth; and "The Threshing-Floor," in which John is taken by the spirit and is saved.

Baldwin's use of religion in this novel reveals the ways in which religious experience and ideology can make a life in this oppressive world even worse. The adults we meet in the novel have all sinned and fallen short, sometimes as a direct result of their social position and inability to carry on a fully human life in the face of racial prejudice and oppression, but there is no acknowledgment of these racial and class difficulties in their religious beliefs or practices. Their God holds them to the same high standard that middle-class or upper-class whites are held to. How much harder to obey strictures against theft when you cannot get and hold a job, when you cannot go into any store you like, when you cannot buy what you need? How much harder to obey strictures that insist that sex is only for marriage when marriages collapse because of these financial strains--or cannot even begin because of them? Religion thus serves to make hard lives even harder by providing internal oppression to complement the external oppression they face, even while it provides an emotional and social outlet in the services, music, and transcendent experiences.

Baldwin does not make one explicit argument about religion or about the African American experience. He is not writing a political novel in the way that Richard Wright's Native Son is a political novel (Baldwin in fact was quite critical of Wright's Native Son, arguing that it lacked realistic characterization and was too broad and heavy-handed); instead, Baldwin provides an examination of the black experience through religion and shows the different ways that religion fits into a larger sense of what it meant to be black in this America by focusing on a few individuals and their experiences, showing, further, how it feels to live these lives.

In the end, John's religious experience is not the end of the story, but the beginning. Baldwin leaves the reader with an ambiguous vision of John's future. Will he be able to use this religious experience to help raise himself up, become a better person, escape the oppression of racism? Or will he fall into sin, as humans do? But it is even more complex than that: Will he use religion to become a better person or will he merely, as others have done before him, use religion to bolster his ego? When John's conversion follows the hypocrisy and flaws of his father, a preacher, even religion isn't enough to guarantee John's future.(less)

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Feb 05, 2011

Velvetink rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: african-american, fiction, religion-etc, autobiography-memoir, 2011-read

My 1982 Collins English dictionary does not have the word mankey. Nor does the Macquarie Dictionary. James Baldwin describes Florence's fur coat as mankey. Baldwin wrote "Go Tell it on the Mountain" in 1954, it was set in the 1930's in Harlem. Did they use the word back then? Did Baldwin time travel to now to use Urban Dictionary? It struck me as ODD and out of place.
MANKEY.
1.The name of a white furry Pokemon with a snout.
I tried to capture a Mankey in my Pokeball, ...more

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Feb 21, 2008

matt rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: fictions-of-the-big-it, america-f-k-yeah

Reading this, years ago, I was struck by something I didn't think I'd be struck with.

Recognition!

I was reaised religious, not in anything close to the kind of religiostity he describes- visceral, pummeling, hyperintense- but pretty far-reaching and existential in my own right, if I do say so myself.

Anyway, I was throttled by the sheer force and passion and earnestness of the writing here. I've been on that threshing floor, and even as I feel self-consci...more

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Nov 27, 2007

Bookchica rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: anyone interested in african-american literature, american classics

Go Tell It On The Mountain is a very bold book. In an era when "Ebonics" had not been coined yet, when being black was not every white kids style, James Baldwin stayed so true to the African-American colloquialism. James Baldwin has written with complete truthfulness and self-questioning this parable of finding yourself, finding your belief, finding your God. Are these even different things, or is it one? It is this honesty which keeps you engrossed. Whether you'll end up loving this b...moreGo Tell It On The Mountain is a very bold book. In an era when "Ebonics" had not been coined yet, when being black was not every white kids style, James Baldwin stayed so true to the African-American colloquialism. James Baldwin has written with complete truthfulness and self-questioning this parable of finding yourself, finding your belief, finding your God. Are these even different things, or is it one? It is this honesty which keeps you engrossed. Whether you'll end up loving this book or not probably depends on your personal equation with the Supreme Being, but what you will definitely admire and carry forward is his honesty, honesty about the lives of African-Americans, honesty which is also echoed in the language.

Go Tell It On the Mountain is a biblical story of a youth dealing with his personal demons with regards to religion at an age where sin has not manifested itself in any form whatsoever in him. John finds himself in the difficult position of questioning his faith. John's mental turmoil in separating the men of god from god itself and paving a religious path for himself is very touching. This mirroring of thoughts which are timeless in nature, pulls you into the story. You find yourself questioning along with John, praying along with his mother Elizabeth and feeling betrayed by his father Gabriel.

James Baldwin delves into each characters personal quest to achieve a place next to God. He frankly describes the African-American homes, the depth to which they are influenced by Christianity. So much so that at times you find it disconcerting. The two-facedness, the fake righteousness of the sanctified men makes you cringe with discomfort, followed by skepticism. Which is why, when John ends up being saved, I felt deceived. What brings about John's confirmation to the faith? Is it the hope to be freed from suffering that is passed on to him from generations? Is it to assuage the curiously skirted guilt of homosexuality? Could it have to do with the evangelist nature of African-American church services, where the charged up atmosphere, the childhood influences, the trance-like energy which may make one forget all inhibitions, insecurities and embrace that which is core to one and all, an eagerness to believe.

That this is a story of a different era is not to be forgotten. The depth to which James Baldwin writes about the African-American psyche, their hope in being freed from their suffering, their expectant belief in their faith, gives you reason to half-heartedly agree to the biblical end to the story.

This book, makes me curious of the role that guilt, fear and a hope for change, plays in bringing people closer to their god. Yes, signs of a true skeptic, but maybe in one of my trance-like states caused by certain unmentionable substances that might change and make me a believer.

Visit I Read... for more reviews.(less)

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Jan 11, 2008

Phayvanh rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: fiction, reviews

At a time when I was spirialing in self-doubt and slight depression, when I was trying to figure out life and find myself, I found this book while browsing the shelves at the San Frnacisco public librry and lived these lives with such passion and clarity I was brought back into the realm of sensousness and divinity. I read this book and felt saved. Saved from the torture of having to live life alone, from the limp mass-market suspense thrillers that were mere diversions of the soul, saved from...more

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Aug 24, 2010

Jimmy rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: male, novel, year-1950s

When I was vacationing in Chicago recently, I went to a used bookstore and saw some James Baldwin books. I've heard many good things about him, so I decided to get this book... an old paperback edition (not the white one pictured above) for $5.

The next morning, flipping through my stack of newly purchased books, I noticed to my amazement that this book was signed! And signed "For Jimmy". Unbelievable:

So I felt like it was fate that brought this bo...moreWhen I was vacationing in Chicago recently, I went to a used bookstore and saw some James Baldwin books. I've heard many good things about him, so I decided to get this book... an old paperback edition (not the white one pictured above) for $5.

The next morning, flipping through my stack of newly purchased books, I noticed to my amazement that this book was signed! And signed "For Jimmy". Unbelievable:

So I felt like it was fate that brought this book into my hands, this book which had as its subject matter: fate. So what could it mean? What is the universe trying to tell me? Am I looking at a double fucking rainbow? ;)

"The distant gramophone stuck now, suddenly, on a grinding, wailing, sardonic trumpet-note; this blind, ugly crying swelled the moment and filled the room. She looked down at John. A hand somewhere struck the gramophone arm and sent the silver needle on its way through the whirling, black grooves, like something bobbing, anchorless, in the middle of the sea." p. 219.

What I love about this book, and what I feel a lot of people reviewing this book on Goodreads have misinterpreted about it, is that this book does not have an agenda on race, religion, class, violence, or sexuality. This book is about these things, but they are never in the driver's seat, because the characters are. The characters are the glue between the interconnectedness of race and religion and class and violence and sexuality, and they show how out of these things arises an insurmountable complexity, an ambiguous amorphous blob of feelings. It is precisely the ability to live within the complexity of these feelings instead of reducing it into the simplicity of judgement that great writers are great. By the end of this book, the reader feels just as ambiguous about God as the characters do. Is the (thing that happens at the end) a good or a bad thing? It is neither, rather it is a complicated mess of feelings that cannot be untied into good or bad.

If you understand how complex things are in the real world, it is hard not to feel empathy for those who must live it. That is why the characters are also neither good nor bad. They are human, and thus, imperfect. Baldwin is a master at inhabiting their headspaces, filling out the history of each character so completely and humanely that it is hard not to feel empathy for each character, even the ones that have done awful things. In fact, the whole book is an exercise in empathy, and that is, in my opinion, the highest aim for any artist.

Of course, I haven't even touched on the attention and quality of the actual words that make up his sentences. Here is a sample excerpt. Note how the lyrical rhythm drives the narrative and vice versa. Also note how he tells more than shows, thus dismantling the "show don't tell" adage (which was never a good rule anyway, except for those aiming for mediocrity, which seems to be all we're willing to aim for these days):

God was everywhere, terrible, the living God; and so high, the song said, you couldn't get over Him; so low you couldn't get under Him; so wide you couldn't get around Him; but must come in at the door.

And she, she knew today that door; a living, wrathful gate. She knew through what fires the soul must crawl, and with what weeping one passed over. Men spoke of how the heart broke up, but never spoke of how the soul hung speechless in the pause, the void, the terror between the living and the dead; how, all garments rent and cast aside, the naked soul passed over the very mouth of Hell. Once there, there was no turning back; once there, the soul remembered, though the heart sometimes forgot. For the world called to the heart, which stammered to reply; life, and love, and revelry, and, most falsely, hope, called the forgetful, the human heart. Only the soul, obsessed with the journey it had made, and had still to make, pursued its mysterious and dreadful end; and carried heavy with weeping and bitterness, the heart along.

And therefore there was war in Heaven, and weeping before the throne: the heart chained to the soul, and the soul imprisoned within the flesh--a weeping, a confusion, and a weight unendurable filled all the earth. Only the love of God could establish order in this chaos; to Him the soul must turn to be delivered.

But what a turning! How could she fail to pray that He would have mercy on her son, and spare him the sin-born anguish of his father and his mother. And that his heart might know a little joy before the long bitterness descended.

SPOILER ALERT:

For those who criticize the end of the book for its convenience/believability: I think what Baldwin is getting at here is that the conversion is not a willful choice. Johnny does not choose to be converted. Of course, the conversion is hard to believe for skeptics of religion, but I think you have to go in with the attitude that Baldwin himself is skeptical of religion, but he is also a believer, at least on some level, i.e. he might not believe religion is always a force for good, but he damn well believes that it is a force. Whether you believe it is the holy spirit or the atmosphere or voodoo does not matter, things like this do happen, and the fact that Johnny's whole life has been steered in this direction doesn't help. It is almost like his own reluctance is no match for the fate of all the history that has brought him to this point in time.

It is also brilliant how the conversion is shown in this light… where it wavers between a joyous event and a thing that is inevitable, like a well-set trap… down a long dark road that has no good end. This ominousness goes along with the joy and tempers it, makes it such a great, ambiguous ending. You get a sense that this is just the beginning of a long hard journey for John.(less)

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Apr 27, 2011

Teresa rated it

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I'm very impressed with how self-assured and commanding Baldwin's first novel is, especially in its structure, and its gritty and poetic prose.

The author's empathy for his characters, even an extremely hypocritical one, is strong too. The difficulty of the adult characters' pasts was most compelling to me, as they can't help but look backward even as they try to forget. The bitterness of the main character's mother, on a day when she might be happy, is subtle and understandable aft...more

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Mar 02, 2010

Hazel rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: literary-fiction

Rereading for the LFPC group. Last read this ages ago, perhaps in my teens or early twenties. I had completely forgotten what a powerful piece of writing this is. I think I was too young to truly appreciate it.

Today I am struck by the rhythms of Baldwin's prose, the harrowing picture he paints of the individual psyche, the family dynamic and the society, all twisted by racism. I recognise the place of theology for a people making sense of the world as they find it, and of particular...more

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Dec 11, 2008

Shep Trott rated it

· review of another edition

First, this book feels like an epic and it's only two hundred and fifty pages. Second, it hurts like hell, and this is because it's too real. One line that struck me particularly was when a sister challenges her brother that his faith is fake, since all it ever did was hurt people, which is no change from who he was before conversion. I should have the book to hand and set it down, but maybe you should just read it. The obvious conclusion is that I need to read more Baldwin, but while hhis s...more

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Jan 18, 2012

Judy rated it

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Recommends it for: anyone

Shelves: 20th-century-fiction, books-from-1953

I had always heard of this book but somehow never read it before. It is a powerful story about a young man raised in Harlem by his stepfather who is a preacher. The family are all members of a fundamentalist church and while racism plays a part in their lives, it is the religious angle that Baldwin emphasizes.

John is fourteen, in fact it is his birthday. Throughout the course of the day, when his birthday seems to have been forgotten by the family (not for the first time), we are ...more
I had always heard of this book but somehow never read it before. It is a powerful story about a young man raised in Harlem by his stepfather who is a preacher. The family are all members of a fundamentalist church and while racism plays a part in their lives, it is the religious angle that Baldwin emphasizes.

John is fourteen, in fact it is his birthday. Throughout the course of the day, when his birthday seems to have been forgotten by the family (not for the first time), we are taken through the early life of his parents in a series of flashbacks during which we learn how each came to be believers. Later in the day, the family goes to church and John feels the possibility of belief for the first time in his life.

The structure of the novel is a bit clunky but the scenes of religious conversion are possibly the best written of any I have ever read. Literature in the 1940s and 1950s is saturated with Christian novels. The Robe, by Lloyd C Douglas, (a bestseller in 1942, 1943, 1944 and 1945) made a comeback in 1953 due to a movie version having been released that year. However, as far as I know there had not been a novel specifically about the Christian theme amongst Black people.

John's stepfather is a hypocrite, a child beater, a religious fanatic. This theme of the fundamentalist who harbors his own sins can be found in any race, any culture. Baldwin takes it apart with ruthless sensitivity, including its effect on the children of such a man.

John's mother is a complete believer in Jesus Christ, in the rewards of the afterlife, and in giving up all one's sorrows to God. She is fully confident that her son will benefit from being "saved."

Between the flashbacks we are taken step by step through John's night of spiritual journey, full of anguish and fear; hours he spends lost outside of his body. Only someone who has lived the experience could have written such a harrowing account. Baldwin did become a believer in his teens, but later rejected religion. In this novel however, he presents a cogent explanation of religious belief and conversion. Whether one is a believer or not, one cannot deny that he makes the connection between human life and religion plain and comprehensible.

At the end, as John walks home with his family, he sees clearly that nothing around him has changed, especially regarding his stepfather, but inside himself he feels changed. That pretty much says it all as far as I am concerned.(less)

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Nov 28, 2011

Kevin rated it

This was a great book. It started a little slow for me, but really picked up. It is the story of a teenager in Harlem who is confronting the various temptations that people of his age face, and struggling with the path his seemingly unloving preacher father wants him to take, or the road that many of his peers embrace. It really hits its stride when it goes into the background of his father, mother, and aunt and brings to the surface all the struggles they have dealt with. It also has a very...moreThis was a great book. It started a little slow for me, but really picked up. It is the story of a teenager in Harlem who is confronting the various temptations that people of his age face, and struggling with the path his seemingly unloving preacher father wants him to take, or the road that many of his peers embrace. It really hits its stride when it goes into the background of his father, mother, and aunt and brings to the surface all the struggles they have dealt with. It also has a very strong Christian theme.

**Contains Spoilers**
The book starts with the Grimes family. John is the one of whom much is expected. He excels at school and stays out of trouble. His younger brother, Roy, is the more rebellious one. He constantly gets in trouble, and at the end of the first part of the book is stabbed with a dull knife in the forehead, resulting in a grizzly, but non-serious injury. This part was hard for me to get too interested in. It seemed like it was going down the road of young people who can’t help but get into trouble and keep doing that. As the book progressed, though, it went into the backgrounds of the other characters. While Gabriel Grimes, the father, is now a preacher and a very strict disciplinarian, in his younger days he was a hard drinker and enjoyed the intimate company of many women. When his mother was on her deathbed, his sister, Florence, left to go to New York City. This left him alone to take care of her in her dying days. As the days went on, her only wish was for him to turn away from his lifestyle and seek God. He resisted her constant pleas, but one day on his way home after a night of embracing the local nightlife, turns away from his previous ways and starts down a new path. He ends up marrying the good-hearted but less attractive Deborah. In a moment of weakness, and yearning for the physical companionship that is absent in his marriage, he ends up getting a coworker, Esther, pregnant. She ends up moving to Chicago and having a son named Royal. She dies and Royal moves back into town, and Gabriel gets to know him a little bit. Royal ends up moving to Chicago and is killed. Deborah lets Gabriel know that she knew Royal was his grown son, and as she died, asked why he never brought it up. Gabriel then moves to Harlem, and meets his sister’s friend Elizabeth, who had a one year old son, John, but whose boyfriend killed himself when he learned that he was to be a father. They end up marrying, and Gabriel helps bring Elizabeth closer to God in the process. After the background is filled in, they are all in church and John prays to be drawn closer to God and away from sin. He experiences a number of visions/dreams, and finally comes to in the wee hours of the morning with a desire to turn from the desires for worldly things and turn instead toward God.
I was surprised how much death was in this book. Children died, adults died of natural causes, people were stabbed, and life went on. There really seemed to be a cycle where each generation would continue with the types of activities that the previous one did. Royal and Roy both acted like their father, Gabriel. It was encouraging that in the end most of the people (Gabriel, Elizabeth, and John) were able to turn away from their previous lifestyles. Gabriel especially had strayed a bit, but turned his life around enough to become a preacher. He still doesn’t show his stepson, John, as much love and care as he could, but he turned from his habits of his late teens and early twenties for good. It was also interesting to see the prayer habits of the congregation. They were praying for John every day. Every one of them (among the small group that regularly attended on Saturday nights) was. That’s not something that would seem as normal in the current church. It also touched on the interaction between whites and blacks in New York City in the 1930’s a little. Overall, I enjoyed this book because of the strong element of opportunity for repentance for everyone, independent of what had been in their lives. I found the characters encouraging who had been through a great deal of trouble and sin, but, although they still struggled at times, had greatly turned their lives around and embraced a more loving and meaningful life. (less)

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Oct 05, 2011

Michael rated it

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Shelves: fiction

I've always been around a lot of Christians since I was young and I often offend them. I was hoping to get a little positive insight into their lives here. Instead Baldwin underlined the prejudices I already had against them. "I guess it takes a holy man to make a girl a real whore" and "you made enough folks pay for sin, it's time you start paying" are a few of my favorite quotes from the book. Black or white, these are the Christians I know. They make people feel dirty...more

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Apr 14, 2011

Rachel rated it

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Go Tell It on the Mountain is the story of a young African American boy growing up in Harlem in the early twentieth century. He struggles with his desire to win his father’s approval and God’s. Additionally, John is faced with several other trials and tribulations of growing up in poverty in the 1930’s. What John does not seem to understand is that the thing he wants most—his father’s approval—will never occur because he does not realize that the man he thinks is his father is actually his stepf...more

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Mar 23, 2011

Linda rated it

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Shelves: prize-winners

The morning of that day, as Gabriel rose and started out to work, the sky was low and nearly black and the air too thick to breathe. Late in the afternoon the wind rose, the skies opened, and the rain came. The rain came down as though once more in Heaven the Lord had been persuaded f the good uses of a flood. It drove before it the bowed wanderer, clapped children into houses, licked with fearful anger against the high, strong wall, and the wall of the lean-to, and the wall of the cabin, beat a...more

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Mar 09, 2011

Annie rated it

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Shelves: fiction

James Baldwin’s book focuses on an African American family in the 1930s, their relationships with one another and the role of religion in shaping identity. The main protagonist of the story is a boy named John, whose relationship with his father, Gabriel, a minister at the Temple of the Fire Baptized, is strained at best. The book flashes into different characters viewpoints and is split into the sections of John, Florence; Gabriel’s sister, Gabriel, Elizabeth, Gabriel’s second wife and John’s...more

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Jul 25, 2011

Tim rated it

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Shelves: african-american-lit

Interpretation can be everything. The subjectivity involved in the interpretation of life becomes an individual’s reality. Interpretation is also a process of discovery. Done right, discovery incorporates an open minded approach to life. This applies to politics, culture, religion, career, etc. How you perceive your world and what you perceive its meaning to be becomes your motivation, inspiration, aspiration and perspiration.

Religion and scripture are the perfect illustration of how i...moreInterpretation can be everything. The subjectivity involved in the interpretation of life becomes an individual’s reality. Interpretation is also a process of discovery. Done right, discovery incorporates an open minded approach to life. This applies to politics, culture, religion, career, etc. How you perceive your world and what you perceive its meaning to be becomes your motivation, inspiration, aspiration and perspiration.

Religion and scripture are the perfect illustration of how interpretation plays into a belief system. The idea of a Higher Power and the way to it involves subjective not objective thought patterns. First, there are the various major religions with their own “inspired” scriptures and traditions. Second, WITHIN those religions, there is a constant battle of conflicting opinions. These thought patterns are tied to race, economic status, system of government and historical conditions.

The best writers often ask more questions than they answer. It is rewarding to read works of literature that open your mind to ways of thinking that you didn’t realize were there. This is the role of the great writer. If you can’t step away from a book compelled to think deeply about the meaning of things, then either you or the writer has not tried hard enough.

James Baldwin’s classic first novel "Go Tell It On The Mountain" takes a look at an African American family’s interpretation of religion. Even WITHIN this family, we are able to see the vast differences in thought incorporated in the representations of God. The imperfections of humanity are what take center stage as our narrative develops. Our characters are faced with the challenge of fusing everyday life in a racist America with an all-powerful yet judgmental God. The deepest, darkest thoughts, actions and desires of our various characters are painfully portrayed, painting a reality so vivid that one can find ways to relate to all of the characters at one time or another. However, the very NATURE of Baldwin’s writing style leaves it open to subjective interpretation. To read the novel completely through and properly define the writer’s beliefs in narrow terms is near impossible.

Baldwin’s profound questions are subtle. We are challenged in every way about the concept of religion and the Higher Power. Gabriel as the patriarch of the family uses religion as a crutch for his faults. This is often true in religious communities. It is the idea that God will cover up your sins and erase them, thus causing you to become a pure person no matter if you consistently fall. It’s all about asking forgiveness. It is the reason Gabriel sees his affair and child born with Esther as no longer a concern in the eyes of God. He is therefore abdicated of responsibility. He sees his physical, emotional and verbal abuse of his family as keeping them on the straight path. It never occurs to him that his dogmatic way of thinking is causing repression and doubts in the minds of those he loves about the possibility of a compassionate God, let alone Gabriel’s own true motives FOR his actions. Is Gabriel acting out of a feeling of guilt for his own demons, or is he just as selfishly insisting on absolute compliance to what HE believes as a way to ensure his own salvation?

Furthermore, Baldwin provokes contemplation on what IS the very purpose of religion. From the beginning of time, man has looked to a moral system (often involving gods) that defines what is good and evil. We can see this in the author’s way of incorporating various situations such as the “sinful” father of Elizabeth. Here is a man whose business revolves around “sin”, yet treats her better than any other man in her life, especially those supposedly more “Christ-like”. What it amounts to in the end is that the common theme of the great moral traditions, religious or otherwise is love. Elizabeth’s father saw love as the greatest thing that he could do for his family. That can never be faulted in a person. Yet the majority of society would choose to elevate the “wrong” behaviors of the individual, failing to balance it out with the good.

Baldwin’s emphasis on religion is central to understanding the African-American experience. Religion and the church were for centuries a source of hope, joy and fellowship in the midst of unbelievable suffering. The sense of COMMUNITY and support also rings loud through the pen of Baldwin. I believe that this CAN be a positive with religion. However, too much good has an equal opportunity to become evil.

Gabriel and Elizabeth’s son John’s intense vision is an interesting way to end the book. It would appear that he had a genuine spiritual awakening. What are we to make of that? Again, my opinion is that the question is left up to us. There are many possible answers, not least of which is whether or not the experience could be self-induced.

James Baldwin tells it like it is, but does so with an open mind. This is the kind of book with which you could easily discern different meaning every time you read it. It is this certain amount of vagueness and open-ended questioning that in an ironic sense (at the risk of sounding blasphemous) is relatable to scripture.

Life involves much tragedy and joy which is also possible in religion. However, the most important theme I derived from this book is that questioning is common to humanity. I grew up in a stifling community that discouraged questioning in religion and education. It was all about rote learning vs. free thought. As you grow older, the process of personal discovery and reflection is one of the most important that you can incorporate into your life. This questioning is essential to you becoming your own person. Blindly following any ideology takes away your individuality. Intellectual laziness should be avoided at all costs. Don’t let modern society (as it’s so masterful in doing) dictate to you how you are to believe. Learn from being your own person. You will find life to be all you thought it could if you are true to yourself and don’t repress that process of discovery. (less)

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May 10, 2011

Jason rated it

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First things first: Baldwin can write his ass off; he just has a way with words that are imperceptibly profound and flow beautifully. This is a deeply religious novel and while I tend to me ambivalent towards such subject matter, I found myself challenged and also captivated by the influence Christianity has on the lives of these characters and the complex way religion drives the story about the Grimes family as each member struggles with their faith in seeking salvation. An engrossing coming-o...more

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Mar 22, 2010

Sandra rated it

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This book is interesting on many levels. On the surface, it is a story about a boy coming of age both physically and spiritually; a sexual awakening amidst a family's religious background. John, the main character, has a sense he will go out into the world and "sin" even though he is bound by his own morals and by society. It is about a boy on the verge of accepting his homosexuality.

What struck me was the structure that Baldwin uses to tell John's story. It's not only Joh...more

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Nov 06, 2009

Colin Hogan rated it

· review of another edition

I was disappointed with this book. When I first started reading it, there was something queer about the main character John. That got me interested. He didn't fit in with his family or his community, and in his wandering around the city, I thought he was going to cast out on his own, building some kind of new existence.

That didn't happen, and maybe I was a bit naive in wanting it. After finishing, I thought about the open environments for a black man in this time period, and ob...moreI was disappointed with this book. When I first started reading it, there was something queer about the main character John. That got me interested. He didn't fit in with his family or his community, and in his wandering around the city, I thought he was going to cast out on his own, building some kind of new existence.

That didn't happen, and maybe I was a bit naive in wanting it. After finishing, I thought about the open environments for a black man in this time period, and obviously, there weren't many. It wasn't so easy to just start out and see what happened. That sucks, but after I thought about that, why Baldwin chose to make his protagonist of Giovanni's Room white made a lot more sense. I read that Baldwin left the United States to move to France in order to escape racism, but even in France, it was easier for a white man to navigate the world and create his own space in it.

The writing was beautiful, and his weaving of the different plots together was really great. I was not so interested in religion, and that was a difficulty in this book.

I was interested in Baldwin's depictions of men as just pathetic. They come off as violent, unpredictable, and untrustworthy. Florence said at one point that there was no woman that could escape the burden of the man, and the father was a perfect example of that. That kind of onerous, antagonistic relationship really troubled me, and the fact that no man really gets along in the book was troubling too. The feeling of tension with violence and hate under the surface between the father and John was intense. I wonder why these masculine relationships were so terrible and lacking in communication or trust.

I only gave the book three stars, but after writing this review, I feel that it deserves more. This is definitely not my favorite Baldwin book. I enjoyed Giovanni's Room much more, but that might be because I am gay and I like when men get together in good ways (Maybe that is Baldwin's way around these terrible relationships between heterosexual men...). I also enjoyed many of Baldwin's essays on race and America, but from what I could discern from my reading, this is the novel that most represents Baldwin's oeuvre. (less)

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Nov 24, 2009

El Habib Louai rated it

· review of another edition

I read this fabulous emotion-filled novel in my last year of the university when I was getting ready for a master's degree in Race,Alterity and Post-colonial discourse. I loved it so much and I was amazed essentially by its sincere description of internal black American feelings towards the growing power of a fake religious father.I loved this novel for its uneasiness while it develops with the sentimentality of the protagonist as he was contrasted to his brother.

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Jul 31, 2011

Apersephone rated it

· review of another edition

Once I read the last part “The Threshing Floor” (Quote for the last chapter: “Then said I, Woe is Me for I am undone; because I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of people with unclean lips; for mine eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts.”) which describes an experience of what it is to “be saved” (perhaps, even perversely, saved means to change a child’s eyes and mind begin to assess the non childlike world that exists beginning slowly to push out childhood), I immediately...more

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Jul 12, 2009

Sarah rated it

· review of another edition

Langston Hughes described this book and its author as using words like the sea uses waves. There is no other way to describe it. The prose, the language, the stories that unfold in this book wash upon the shores of the mind sometimes volatile, sometimes languishing, but always ceaseless.
The novel starts with the narrative of John who awakes on his fourteenth birthday in a panic. An epiphany awakens him before anyone else and in his panic he realizes that he stands at a fork in the road of...moreLangston Hughes described this book and its author as using words like the sea uses waves. There is no other way to describe it. The prose, the language, the stories that unfold in this book wash upon the shores of the mind sometimes volatile, sometimes languishing, but always ceaseless.
The novel starts with the narrative of John who awakes on his fourteenth birthday in a panic. An epiphany awakens him before anyone else and in his panic he realizes that he stands at a fork in the road of his life. He can continue to serve the church of his father whom he hates or turn his back which he fears to do.
He returns to sleep only to wake up and find that everyone has forgotten it is is birthday and he must do chores just like every other day. He envies and dislikes his younger brother Roy who is brave enough to follow his own path despite their father's physical abuse.
At the finish of his chores that he compares to Sisyphus's neverending punishment in Tartarus, his mother, Elizabeth, gives him birthday money and a silent moment between them fills him with unwept tears of joy and love for his mother.
He decides to spend some of it on a movie and is scared the netire time of being caught at the forbidden cinema theater. Returning home, he finds his younger brother, Roy, was stabbed by a knife, though not fatally he soon sees. But, in his father's eyes he sees that his father wishes it were John on the floor stabbed rather than his favorite son, Roy. His father then begins to blame his Elizabeth for not keeping an eye on "his son," but his sister, Aunt Florence, doesn't hesitate to remind him that no one can keep Roy cooped up inside forever and that he, Gabriel, was pretty wild in his younger days as well. Gabriel begins to blame "white folk" for hurting his beloved son and strikes Elizabeth in anger. Roy sits up between the two cursing at his father saying, "You black bastard! You can't hit my mother! She's my mother!"
Disbelievingly, Gabriel turns and begins to beat Roy for cursing at him which his sister Florence stops by fearlessly holding back his belt that he had used.
Later, he goes to church to clean and get it ready for a meeting and an older boy he admires and envies named Elisha helps him. The two get in a goodnatured scrap and John makes a point of not conceding quickly like he normally would. He would make Elisha's victory costly. Soon two of "the saints" arrive and Elisha begins playing on the piano while the two older saints talk and sing random hymns.
It then leaves John's narrative as his Aunt Florence, his mother, Elizabeth, and his father, Gabriel all enter the church and begin to pray.
Florence narrates the story of what she views as the distinguishing moments of her life. Born the duaghter of a former slave, she was brought up to cater to her younger brother who being the only man was spoiled and given everything first. Gabriel turned out wild, chasing women, chasing booze, and everything his mother urged him to repent while Florence and her mother worked themselves to the bone to provide for his wellbeing.
As her mother approached death, Florence realized she had to go or forever be her brother's keeper and she was too headstrong and bitter to allow that. So on her mother's deathbed she left with a silent understanding, however begrudgingly, from her elderly mother. Gabriel tried to stop her not from any love for his sister, but because without her he'd have to take on some responisibility for his mother. He's have to grow up a little. So, Florence left and married Frank who she bossed around and nagged endlessly for years until he'd had enough and walked out after 10 yrs. She didn't realize how much she needed and loved him until he left her and by then he had died in the war. Embittered towards all men and especially her brother, however reformed he claimed to be now, she remained alone and was now faced with her impending death from an unknown disease, faintly described as kidney or liver-related.
Gabriel's prayer starts at the moment he was saved. He describes the hallucinatory dream he had that saved him from a life of wickedness and led him to become an enigmatic preacher. He marries his older sister's friend Deborah who was brutally raped as a young girl by white men because he believes that God sent her to him so that she may bear his Royal lineage that will be favorites with the Lord. But, she cannot bear children and he begins to grow disgusted with his wife. The narrative then jumps to the day he met Esther a maid in the house he works at who is always followed by lots of men and sin. He doesn't really try to resist, but tries to stay away from her unsuccessfully until he "falls" and cheats on his wife with Esther for all of nine days. Esther gets pregnant and scared she goes to him and he washes his hands of her. He calls her a sinner and asks her what "she's" going to do instead of what "we're" going to do. Not allowing him to beat her down, she demands some money so she can get away from him and have her baby that she names Royal, mocking Gabriel's dream of a holy lineage of sons to carry on the Gospel. He recalls Esther's death in the north and watching from afar, without ever coming forward, his son growing up just as wild as he was. Royal dies from being stabbed (which alludes to his wildeyed panic at Roy's being stabbed in John's narrative) and he views it as not his fault though Deborah reveals that she knew about Esther and Royal and that if he had just told her she would have gladly taken in Royal and raised him as their own no matter what people said about them. Deborah dies and he alludes to his meeting "Elizabeth and her son" as his salvation.
Then comes Elizabeth's prayer. She was born to a sickly mother and a father that loved her adoringly and she loved in return. After her mother died, a strict Aunt from Maryland took her from her father because he ran a whorehouse. She despised her Aunt for taking her from her father and although she knew her father could have come taken her back if he really loved her, she never blamed him that he didn't. One day she meets Richard and they begin to secretly date. She describes an inherent insolence and embitterment in his character, but for her he smiles and amazes her with his intelligence and love. He moves to NYC and wants her to come with him so she convinces her Aunt to let her move in with a distant relative in NYC where there are better advantages for her there than in the south. Bitterly, she reflects that there are better opportunities, but the north takes as much as it gives. The distant respectable relative turns out to run a psychic parlor of which she is the clairvoyent who doesn't care or see a damn thing Elizabeth does. Richard knocks her up, but she doesn't tell him quite yet believing, at the time, it would be a burden she didn't want him to bear. Now she believes he'd still be alive and with her if she had told him. After walking her home, Richard was waiting for the subway when a group of black men fighting each other stumbled into him. Police saw the group and hauled them all in on robbery. Richard is beaten and brutalized because all "of them look alike." Though eventually he proves that he wasn't there and wasn't a part of it. Free he cries in his bed holding Elizabeth close. She remembers almost telling him then, but holding back to not burden him. The next morning, she finds out he cuts his wrists. Scared and alone, she refuses to tell her Aunt or contact her father about her trouble, but moves out and gets a night job so that she can take care of Johnny during the day and earn money at night. There she meets Florence who she confides in about Johnny though to everyone else she tells she is a widow. Florence introduces her to Gabriel who has just moved to NYC and apparently told him all about Johnny and Elizabeth. Soon, he tells Elizabeth that he believes the Lord sent her and her boy to him and that he will love litle Johnny like his own son and "walk in the light of the Lord." After marrying Gabriel, much to Florence's consternation she soon realized that he kept his promise to the letter, but not the spirit. He did not truly love John, not like his real son Roy despite the fact that John was an obedient, good boy whereas Roy was hell-bent. She wants to protect her son, but doesn't know how.
John's narrative again picks up with the end of his mother's when she hears him yell and believes he must be "speaking with God." He narrates the dreamlike vision he has in which he is saved twisting and hollering on the floor of the church in front of everyone. It takes all night, but he comes to a different being. Still frightened of what he felt to be his damnation, he talks with Elisha as one talks with a close older brother asking him to pray for him to keep him saved. Gabriel disbelieves John's salvation, but refuses to show it in front of the saints. Elizabeth cries silently as the saints walk with her towards home at dawn. Florence and Gabriel walk in a group to themselves and Florence lets him know that Deborah told her about Royal and Esther and reveals that she will spend her last breath telling everyone that he sinned most cruelly destroying Esther, Royal, and Deborah with his self-righteousness and hypocritical attitude. He still believes he is above reproach and that there's no point to it, but Florence tells him that she's going to tell Elizabeth and let her no there's more than one sinner living in her home. But, Florence will not let Gabriel destroy more lives with his wild nature.
The novel ends with John making Elisha promise to pray for him and him smiling into his father's frowning face as he rushed in after his mother.
The way the story unfolds, the way James Baldwin hit the reader with wave after wave of layer after layer to a group of people so rich and real is wonderful. The changing morals of society, relationship with God, the definition of sin and salvation, it all blends seamlessly in the multiple narratives. It is a powerful book, rich with stories and rife with fallen saints. Will John remain saved? Will Florence tell Elizabeth? Will Elizabeth grow stronger than Gabriel's beatings because of it? Will Roy tame? All these and more are left in the reader's mind, unanswered and can only be conjectured at. Wonderful, wonderful book.(less)

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Sep 27, 2010

Teresa rated it

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James Baldwin s semi-autobiographical novel, set primarily in 1930s Harlem, depicts John s spiritual struggle, and it is John s thoughts, expressed by an omniscient third-person narrator, that frame the novel. In the middle section, we step inside the prayers of John s aunt, his father, and his mother. We learn what circumstances led them to behave as they do and why John s father is so cold.[return][return]Although Go Tell It on the Mountain is sometimes pigeon-holed as an African-American...more

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Dec 03, 2011

Trice rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: 2011, americana, literature

struck by John's vision and by the perception in 'The Prayers of the Saints'. I can't imagine being able to see this clearly into the lives around me. I wonder, though if his father was broken under all that pride and judgement; did he ever despair of himself deep in his own heart? The sadness he spreads around him doubled by his need for another man's son to fail that he might not be condemned in himself for his own sons' failures to live or even to barely seek after holy lives. Somehow he miss...morestruck by John's vision and by the perception in 'The Prayers of the Saints'. I can't imagine being able to see this clearly into the lives around me. I wonder, though if his father was broken under all that pride and judgement; did he ever despair of himself deep in his own heart? The sadness he spreads around him doubled by his need for another man's son to fail that he might not be condemned in himself for his own sons' failures to live or even to barely seek after holy lives. Somehow he missed grace. The sacrifice the Lord desires is a broken and contrite heart... and yet, so often we are captive to our own pride. Kind of strange to be reading (listening to) C.S. Lewis' Perelandra at the same time as Go Tell It on the Mountain, they are so very, very different from each other, and yet in some ways the two are the same.

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Oct 20, 2010

Mark rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: time-100, america-f-yeah

Started out with a lot of potential that it veered away from in the end. I feel like I am bringing my own bias to bear in saying that - but then, what else do I have to bring? The novel is set in Harlem in the 1930s, with flashbacks into the past of several characters as they consider things that have gone before during a Saturday night prayer meeting. I am not much of a friend to organized religion nowadays, and the kind of evangelism going on in here - people speaking in tongues, talking about...more

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Apr 29, 2007

Megan rated it

· review of another edition

It's no doubt that the language is beautiful, I'll give Baldwin that. And it was good. Very good. I wish that he had written another 100 pages, at least, because this is one of those books where I'd be content if it never ended, and I was trapped into reading this story forever. I'm not entirely sure that I agree with Baldwin's religious views, but he certainly believes in them, and I can do nothing but respect him for that.

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Mar 21, 2011

Veronica rated it

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Recommended to Veronica by: Modern Library's 100 Best Novels

What a phenomenal book this was. Baldwin’s storytelling abilities are remarkable. Not only is Go Tell it on the Mountain a great tale, but we actually get into the characters’ souls and understand them as if we’ve become them. The reader has the privilege of being on the inside, so to speak, so fully understands the misperceptions that surround the various characters.

Set primarily in 1930′s Harlem, we meet the Grimes family and come to know them quite intimately. With the patriarc...moreWhat a phenomenal book this was. Baldwin’s storytelling abilities are remarkable. Not only is Go Tell it on the Mountain a great tale, but we actually get into the characters’ souls and understand them as if we’ve become them. The reader has the privilege of being on the inside, so to speak, so fully understands the misperceptions that surround the various characters.

Set primarily in 1930′s Harlem, we meet the Grimes family and come to know them quite intimately. With the patriarch a minister, there are biblical references throughout. Baldwin addresses numerous issues; racism, police brutality, sexual promiscuity, infidelity, rape, death as well as conflicts involving sexual identity, religious beliefs and family.

We meet John Grimes as he is just turning 14. He is living with his parents and three younger siblings and begins seeing his family in a new light posing questions in his mind he’ll never put to his lips.

Deacon Gabriel is the father and is first presented through John’s eyes as a brutal and cold man. The reader rides a see saw with this character and feels both sympathy and antipathy toward him.

The sister of Gabriel, Aunt Florence, at first appears cold like her brother, but we get to see her fiery and independent side. Flashbacks to her life as a young girl living with her brother reveal how she came to resent Gabriel and failed to live the life she believed she was meant to.

Elizabeth Grimes is the mother and like the other characters is not what she at first appears to be. She seems to be carrying the world’s burdens upon her shoulders when we first meet her and we come to realize that in a sense, she is. Her seeming indifference and uncaring are the mask she wears to numb the pain of her early years fraught with tragedy.

What worked so well was the feeling that the reader knew more than the characters. Baldwin presented real people with real baggage and rather than tidy it all up with tear filled confessions, he let the characters’ secrets be known only to the reader and had them carry on their frustrated lives without making revelations to one another.

What didn’t work for me was the last section of the book, reminiscent of Dante’s Inferno, and seemed somewhat interminable. At this point, there was an expectation of closure, but there was none.

I’d love a little chat with Mr. Baldwin. Perhaps I could pick his brain and get an inkling as to how he so deftly developed his characters. I’d also love to hear about his life in France.

My rating for Go Tell it on the Mountain is a 9 out of 10.
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Jun 14, 2009

Fathima Cader rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: own, recommended

what is the term for internalised male hatred of penises? and, perhaps more importantly, why is that said term, if it exists, isn't commonly known? there's a lot going on in Baldwin's debut novel, and much of it has to do with christian (which sect?) anxieties around sex. the male characters are particularly guilt-ridden, not just about the act of having sex itself, but everything relating to it, which ultimately comes down to an acute hatred of their penises, which more than once they refer to ...more

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Jul 18, 2009

Hannah rated it

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Shelves: nerdy-english-major-books

I was a little biased from the start reading this because I was pretty mad at James Baldwin for being such a jerk to Richard Wright after Wright had kind of taken him under his wing and helped him out, only then to have his writings roundly criticized by Baldwin. I think Baldwin was right on some points, but a pretty under-handed thing to do to your mentor.

Over all, the book was a pretty severe indictment of the black church at the time, especially of the hypocrisy of some of its le...more

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Jul 30, 2010

Ricky Orr rated it

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This book is about a young man John, his step-father Gabriel, his mother Elizabeth, and his Aunt Florence. Gabriel is a preacher in a store-front church in Harlem in the 1930's, and most of the story takes place during a night at the church.

Through the "prayers" of each of the characters, they reminiscence about their past - Gabriels wild childhood, his conversion when he was saved, and his fall when he cheated on his wife and got another woman pregnant. Gabriel believed ...moreThis book is about a young man John, his step-father Gabriel, his mother Elizabeth, and his Aunt Florence. Gabriel is a preacher in a store-front church in Harlem in the 1930's, and most of the story takes place during a night at the church.

Through the "prayers" of each of the characters, they reminiscence about their past - Gabriels wild childhood, his conversion when he was saved, and his fall when he cheated on his wife and got another woman pregnant. Gabriel believed that God promised him a son to follow in his footsteps, but this promised seemed unfullfilled. Ironically, the "son" following in his footsteps - John - was not fathered by Gabriel, and Gabriel resented him. The conflict between John and Gabriel was a major theme of the book. Gabriel is not a likable character.

Elizabeth, John's mother, was Gabriel's second wife. When her mother died, she was separated from her father whom she loved, and was raised by her Aunt. Elizabeth ran off with a man she met, and got pregnant. Before her lover knew that Elizabeth was pregnant, he killed himself. Elizabeth then met Florence, and through Florence, Gabriel. Gabriel promised to raise John as if he were his own son, and they married.

Florence, Gabriel's older sister, resented Gabriel from childhood. She was friends with Gabriel's first wife, and believed Gabriel treated her poorly. She also was a friend to Elizabeth, and she felt Gabriel treated Elizabeth poorly too. Florence had a letter from Gabriel's first wife that she intended to use against Gabriel, and expose his past sin.

John, the main chararcter of the book, doesn't understand why his "father" doesn't seem to like him, and he thinks that somehow it must be his fault. While at the church, he has a vision and is saved. He thinks that with his conversion, his father will accept him and love him, but as the book concludes, it is apparent that nothing has changed.

This was a complicated book, with very strong religious themes and overtones. Themes also included the various conflicts between characters, and also an underlying racial conflict.

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James Baldwin offered a vital literary voice during the era of civil rights activism in the 1950s and '60s. The eldest of nine children, his stepfather was a minister. At age 14, Baldwin became a preacher at the small Fireside Pentecostal Church in Harlem. In the...more

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“People pay for what they do, and still more for what they have allowed themselves to become. And they pay for it very simply; by the lives they lead.” — 104 people liked it

“The morning of that day, as Gabriel rose and started out to work, the sky was low and nearly black and the air too thick to breath. Late in the afternoon the wind rose, the skies opened, and the rain came. The rain came down as though once more in Heaven the Lord had been persuaded of the good uses of a flood. It drove before it the bowed wanderer, clapped children into houses, licked with fearful anger against the high, strong wall, and the wall of the lean-to, and the wall of the cabin, beat against the bark and the leaves of trees, trampled the broad grass, and broke the neck of the flower. The world turned dark, forever, everywhere, and windows ran as though their glass panes bore all the tears of eternity, threatening at every instant to shatter inward against this force, uncontrollable, so abruptly visited on the earth.” — 5 people liked it

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