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Go Tell it on the Mountain

3.93 of 5 stars 3.93 · rating details · 13,506 ratings · 485 reviews

"Mountain," Baldwin said, "is the book I had to write if I was ever going to write anything else." Go Tell It On The Mountain, first published in 1953, is Baldwin's first major work, a novel that has established itself as an American classic. With lyrical precision, psychological directness, resonating symbolic power, and a rage that is at once unrelenting and compassionat...more

256 pages

Published 2001 by Penguin (first published 1953)

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Nov 20, 2012 Steve aka Sckenda rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites-contemporary, 20th-century, african-american, religion, fundamentalism, bildungsroman, coming-of-age, harlem, new-york-city, family, fathers-and-sons, american-literature, modern-library-100, time-100

“On this threshing floor the child was the soul that struggled to the light, and it was the church that was in labor, that did not cease to push and pull, calling on the name of Jesus....For the rebirth of the soul was perpetual; only rebirth every hour could stay the hand of Satan.” (113)

Fourteen-year old John Grimes belongs to the Temple of the Fire Baptized, a store-front church in Harlem. In “Go Tell It On the Mountain,” published in 1952, James Baldwin tells the story of how a sensitive A...more

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Jan 09, 2008 Christy rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 away from h...more 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 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 4 of 5 stars · 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, but it escaped!
2.A word used...more

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Feb 21, 2008 matt rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fictions-of-the-big-it, america-f-k-yeah, shattering, modern-library-100

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-conscious about making that claim, I'm not going...more

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Nov 27, 2007 Bookchica rated it 2 of 5 stars 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 book or not...more 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 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 5 of 5 stars · 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 m...more

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Aug 24, 2010 Jimmy rated it 5 of 5 stars · 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 book into my hands, this book which had as its subj...more 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 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 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 after you know he...more

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Aug 12, 2010 leslie nikole rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Read the book more than ten times, had to buy it after the library told me I couldn't take it out anymore. Absolutely loved it.

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Mar 02, 2010 Hazel rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 religious p...more

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Dec 11, 2008 J. Trott rated it 5 of 5 stars · 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 searc...more

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May 08, 2013 أحمد أبازيد Ahmad Abazed rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

عن الجنس و العنصريّة و الدين , في مزيج من حياة بالدوين نفسه و من معاناة الأمريكان السود و تقاليد الكنيسة , و شخصيّات يتصارعها الخطيئة و الطهارة , و إن كانت في صراعاتها مستغرقةً في الوحل , و معظم الرواية ذكريات أمام مذبح الكنيسة , و تحت وقع الترانيم

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Mar 18, 2013 Al rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Go Tell It On The Mountain,

Is a young man's novel, as tightly coiled as a new spring, yet tempered by a maturing man's confidence and empathy. It's not a long book, and its action spans but a single day--yet the author packs in enough emotion, detail, and intimate revelation to make his story feel like a mid-20th-century epic. Using as a frame the spiritual and moral awakening of 14-year-old John Grimes during a Saturday night service in a Harlem storefront church, Baldwin lays bare the secret

...more

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Mar 08, 2013 Kevin Cervantes added it

James Baldwin's " Go Tell It on the Mountain" surprised me with the beautifully written exploration of religious experience in African American life, both North and South. This book was okay for me. It w ascent my cup of tea. I'm not so much into old literature. But there were some things that did catch my attention.

Some of the themes include family, religious, and racism. This novel draws on a history of the United States that it offers an insight into the effects of slavery and the migration o...more

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Jun 16, 2013 Ben Siems rated it 5 of 5 stars

So, here it is, plain and simple, and I mean this in the best possible way, with all due reverence and respect: James Baldwin is bad-ass. I mean, with a capital 'B' and a capital 'A'.

With a relentless cascade of deeply layered, powerfully resonant metaphors, he strips away every ounce of self-deception his characters may use to get through their days, until you cannot possibly empathize with their hardships, which are so often of their own making. Then he turns the tables with menacing virtuosit...more

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May 13, 2013 Leon rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

James Baldwin's stunning first novel is now anAmerican classic. With startling realism that bringsHarlem and the black experience vividly to life,this is a work that touches the heart with emotionwhile it stimulates the mind with its narrativestyle, symbolism, and excoriating vision of racismin America. Moving through time from the ruralSouth to the northern ghetto, starkly contrasting theattitudes of two generations of an embattlesfamily, Go Tell It On The Mountainis an unsurpassed portrayal o

...more

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 northern ghetto, starkly contrasting the attitudes of two generations of an embattles family, Go Tell It On The Mountain is an unsurpassed portrayal of human beings caught up in a dramatic struggle and of a society confronting inevitable change.

"The most important novel written about the American Negro," says Commentary. "It is written with poetic intensity and great narrative skill," writes Harper's. Saturday Review praises it as "masterful," and the San Francisco Chronicle declares that this important American novel is "brutal, objective and compassionate."

Amazon.com Review

First published in 1953 when James Baldwin was nearly 30, Go Tell It on the Mountain is a young man's novel, as tightly coiled as a new spring, yet tempered by a maturing man's confidence and empathy. It's not a long book, and its action spans but a single day--yet the author packs in enough emotion, detail, and intimate revelation to make his story feel like a mid-20th-century epic. Using as a frame the spiritual and moral awakening of 14-year-old John Grimes during a Saturday night service in a Harlem storefront church, Baldwin lays bare the secrets of a tormented black family during the depression. John's parents, praying beside him, both wrestle with the ghosts of their sinful pasts--Gabriel, a preacher of towering hypocrisy, fathered an illegitimate child during his first marriage down South and refused to recognize his doomed bastard son; Elizabeth fell in love with a charming, free-spirited young man, followed him to New York, became pregnant with his son, and lost him before she could reveal her condition.

Baldwin lays down the terrible symmetries of these two blighted lives as the ironic context for John's dark night of the soul. When day dawns, John believes himself saved, but his creator makes it clear that this salvation arises as much from blindness as revelation: "He was filled with a joy, a joy unspeakable, whose roots, though he would not trace them on this new day of his life, were nourished by the wellspring of a despair not yet discovered."

Though it was hailed at publication for its groundbreaking use of black idiom, what is most striking about Go Tell It on the Mountain today is its structure and its scope. In peeling back the layers of these damaged lives, Baldwin dramatizes the story of the great black migration from rural South to urban North. "Behind them was the darkness," Baldwin writes of Gabriel and Elizabeth's lost generation, "nothing but the darkness, and all around them destruction, and before them nothing but the fire--a bastard people, far from God, singing and crying in the wilderness!" This is Baldwin's music--a music in which rhapsody is rooted anguish--and there is none finer in American literature. --David Laskin

Review

Semiautobiographical novel by James Baldwin, published in 1953. Based on the author's experiences as a teenaged preacher in a small revivalist church, the novel describes two days and a long night in the life of the Grimes family, particularly the 14-year-old John and his stepfather Gabriel. It is a classic of contemporary African-American literature. Baldwin's description of John's descent into the depths of his young soul was hailed as brilliant, as was his exploration of Gabriel's complex sorrows. The novel teems with biblical references. Though the novel is in part about the position of blacks in American society, some critics felt that Baldwin inadequately addressed racial issues; the novelist, however, said he made a deliberate attempt to break out of the "cage" of black writing. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

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Jan 26, 2013 Marc L rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: american-literature

Knappe evocatie van het opgroeien van een jonge zwarte in Harlem in een milieu van "vurige" baptisten. De onderlinge relaties (zoon-vader, zoon-moeder, vader-tante, enz) worden mooi, stapsgewijs in beeld gebracht, bij elk hoofdstuk krijg je meer informatie over de precieze onderlinge verhoudingen. Daaruit blijkt een ongelofelijke obsessie met zonde en heilig worden die enerzijds verstikkend werkt, maar anderzijds toch ruimte laat voor heel mooie, humane opstellingen (vb John tav Elisha, moeder E...more

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Aug 17, 2012 Nick Jones rated it 5 of 5 stars

The first part of the novel is wonderful. John Grimes wakes on his 14th birthday and we follow him through his day in 1930s Harlem. Although it is not written in first person, it closely follows John’s perspective and is written in a heightened colloquial American-English, as though it is spoken word. The story meanders, following the events of the day (and the prose in its detail invites us to meander with it, not rush to narrative conclusions). James Baldwin is a master of uncertainty: if the...more The first part of the novel is wonderful. John Grimes wakes on his 14th birthday and we follow him through his day in 1930s Harlem. Although it is not written in first person, it closely follows John’s perspective and is written in a heightened colloquial American-English, as though it is spoken word. The story meanders, following the events of the day (and the prose in its detail invites us to meander with it, not rush to narrative conclusions). James Baldwin is a master of uncertainty: if the novel intrigues it is because questions are raised: what, for instance, are the grounds for the tensions between John and his strict preacher father? And we share John’s uncertainty about his mother’s motivations. I presumed the book was going to continue in much the same way, following John, answering questions and resolving tensions raised in the first section, but the long second part of the novel broadens its perspective, the three chapters looping back to follow the previous lives of John’s aunt, father and mother. This places the experiences of the individual characters into wider social contexts, therefore when things are explained or become clearer, they are given communal motivations, rather than just personal or psychological ones. In a way the book goes from being a typical Twentieth Century novel centred on the consciousness of a character, to become something closer to a Nineteenth Century novel that places its characters into broader communities...and does this totally successfully. (Only very occasionally do some of the back stories seem a little obvious.) So, while not necessarily being called on to like John’s father, we now can see, to take just one example, that his prejudice against white people is a rational prejudice. Central to the novel is the family’s place in the Church and its domination of their lives. While to begin with this could have been seen as a largely stifling thing, legitimating, for instance, the father’s brutality, the importance of the Church as a place of spiritual survival within the broader white society is constantly depicted: one of the tensions within the novel comes through this investigation of a Church that is both repressive and liberating. I find the final section of the novel the most problematic. The perspective returns to John and where to begin with John had been an outsider to the Church, at least in his internal life, a religious experience now places securely at its centre. This could be read as a simple celebration of the Church, but if we know of Baldwin’s childhood with the Church and his later status as outsider, maybe we can find ambiguities in the resolution.(less)

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May 19, 2012 Smcleish rated it 4 of 5 stars

Originally published on my blog here in October 1999.

The issue of race has been so powerful in twentieth century American society, it is hardly surprising that so much of the best literature it has produced relates to the subject. Go Tell It on the Mountain is a rather unusual novel with the theme, since it is about the role of Christianity in the experience of black men and women in the first half of the century, and only indirectly about the relationship between black and white.

The relationshi...more Originally published on my blog here in October 1999.

The issue of race has been so powerful in twentieth century American society, it is hardly surprising that so much of the best literature it has produced relates to the subject. Go Tell It on the Mountain is a rather unusual novel with the theme, since it is about the role of Christianity in the experience of black men and women in the first half of the century, and only indirectly about the relationship between black and white.

The relationship between races is implicitly part of this story, since (from a non-religious point of view) it explains much of the attraction of Christianity, particularly the hard-line evangelical forms of Pentecostalism, to these people. Promise of a better world to come, justice done towards the oppressors, status for the true believer: a potent set of ideas for a society working its way out of slavery.

Go Tell It on the Mountain tells the story of a young man, Johnny Grimes, growing up in Harlem in a poor family who are one of the mainstays of a tiny local Pentecostal church. Those who know him expect that, one day, he will become a great pastor, yet in his teens he is beginning to think of escape. This is partly because of the attractions of the world, but also partly because of the hatred his abusive father Joshua, a church deacon, inspires in him.

The novel concentrates on the climactic night in John's spiritual life, a night at the church where he must make the decision whether to accept Jesus as Lord or reject him forever. His parents and his aunt are there, with other church members, and the book basically tells us the thoughts of each as they pray, to give us an insight into the events that shaped the Grimes family.

Go Tell It on the Mountain, then, brings together two major themes of twentieth century literature, the history of American race relations, and the role of religion, and takes an unusual angle toward both. Much more positive about Christianity than most recent novels, it even takes the truth of charismatic theology almost for granted. It is concerned with real, imperfect people, not "saints" (in the generally understood rather than theological sense), but people with a real and living faith. Written at a time when the attitude of the white intelligentsia was particularly anti-religious, it is not surprising that Baldwin has been described as the writer they loved to hate.(less)

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Feb 11, 2012 Adam rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction

This is a single day in the life of a boy in a black Harlem evangelical church. Throughout, Baldwin relentlessly describes religious experience in brutally physical terms:

“This power had struck John, in the head or in the heart; and, in a moment, wholly, filling him with an anguish that he could never in his life have imagined, that he surely could not endure, that even now he could not believe, had opened him up had cracked him open, as wood beneath the axe cracks down the middle, as rocks brea...more

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Jan 18, 2012 Judy rated it 5 of 5 stars 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 taken through t...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 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 str...more 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 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 4 of 5 stars

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 and low for life choices...more

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Apr 14, 2011 Rachel rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 4 of 5 stars

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 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 m...more

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Apr 21, 2013 Francis rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

dense with abstractions. james baldwin is a master of prose and wrote in his own unique style. his style is not easy, his sentiments are oft elusive and so poignant that each sentence demands to be viewed philosophically; rich underpinnings that open up to a broad scope. the longer one tosses these passages about, the deeper one finds oneself. each character offers glimpses of baldwin, whether by virtue of experience or concretely. nothing escaped his scrutiny. the theme of death is pervasive, e...more

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Jul 25, 2011 Tim rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 interpretat...more 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 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 4 of 5 stars

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-of...more

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Mar 22, 2010 Sandra rated it 4 of 5 stars

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 John's story, but also th...more

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About James Baldwin

Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

James Arthur Baldwin was an American novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic.

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, Bal...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.” — 196 people liked it

“But to look back from the stony plain along the road which led one to that place is not at all the same thing as walking on the road; the perspective to say the very least, changes only with the journey; only when the road has, all abruptly and treacherously, and with an absoluteness that permits no argument, turned or dropped or risen is one able to see all that one could not have seen from any other place.” — 9 people liked it

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