The stark grief of a brother mourning a brother opens this novel with a stunning, unforgettable experience. Here, in a monumental saga o...
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reviews
Jul 15, 2008
bruin
rated it: 
i read this book on the train and would often weep audibly while reading. all the commuters would stare and crane their necks to see what i was reading-- once an older lady who was sitting next to me patted my arm a bit while tears were rolling down my face.
building community on the train through such honest beauty in the form of literature--breathtaking.
this definitely goes on my favorite books ever shelf.
quite possibly one of the best books that i've e More...
building community on the train through such honest beauty in the form of literature--breathtaking.
this definitely goes on my favorite books ever shelf.
quite possibly one of the best books that i've e More...
Apr 03, 2008
jessi lee
rated it:
something about this book moved me so deeply. and it started in the very beginning of the book, when the main character is hit so hard by grief. i cry and cry when i read this.
i think that i love baldwin's books about the strength of family the best--ones that follow queer families and chosen families and birth families through long, complicated relationships, and historical events, and coping with tremendous trauma and loss, and loving one another to various degrees of effective More...
i think that i love baldwin's books about the strength of family the best--ones that follow queer families and chosen families and birth families through long, complicated relationships, and historical events, and coping with tremendous trauma and loss, and loving one another to various degrees of effective More...
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Aug 09, 2011
By 1979 James Baldwin had produced some of his finest works in literature. His semi-autobiographical novel Go tell it on the Mountain, the beautifully written and symbolic Giovanni’s Room, and his collection of essays in Notes of a Native Son and The Fire Next Time provided a highly personal looks into race relations, homosexuality, and existential questions of identity.
Written in 1979, Just Above My Head marks Baldwin’s second to last novel. Like his seminal works, this novel deals with issu More...
Written in 1979, Just Above My Head marks Baldwin’s second to last novel. Like his seminal works, this novel deals with issu More...
Jul 08, 2010
Ensiform
rated it:
This is a masterpiece. It's well-written, full of emotion and power and imagery that reveals everything. Like this phrase at the end of the book: "It is true that our judgement flatters the world's indifference, and makes of us accomplices to our doom." The text is full of that kind of startling truth posed in passionate and flowing prose. The characters were real and their actions and emotions were moving. I have to say that Baldwin has, like any truly great author must have, a d
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Dec 09, 2011
Patrick
rated it: 
The novel is long, but it is an excellent read. The perspective of the narrator is interesting. The author establishes a third person narrator, but doesn't adhere to the perspective. The text jumps in and out of different characters, from Hall early in the story to Author at the very end. The text also has great conversational rhthym. The dialogue of the characters stops and changes direction quickly, sometimes without notice; it certainly mimics real conversation, but the random changes of
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Aug 29, 2011
Lightofbeauty
rated it:
This is what literature is all about. Just Above My Head is powerful and instantly emotional and moving from the moment I started reading. From the moment I started reading, it was difficult for me to put the book down. Once I had to put the book down, I was yearning, craving for the moment when I can dive back into the story again. The story had hardly begun and I was moved to tears. I just barely started getting to know the characters, and I could hear them, see them, feel them, hell, even tas
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Jul 06, 2009
Ellery
rated it:
I am about half way through this right now. Why is it taking me so long. I couldn't believe it when I found this book! Was there a James Baldwin novel I hadn't read yet? The answer was yes. I don't like it as much as some of another country or if beale street could talk, but I am still engrossed. The character development is what gets me. And I think also the raw emotion connection between some of the characters seems so dramatic, but also genuine. It makes me wonder if that is how Jimmy
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Jul 26, 2008
Wade
rated it:
God damn. James Baldwin's novels are intense, and this is the best I've read. He writes so sharply, almost viciously, about the inner thoughts and experiences of his characters--in this case, a Black family in New York in the 1940s-60s. He is unsparing about the state of racial, sexual, and religious dynamics in the US, and it makes me wonder how much as really changed on the larger level. The book moved me to tears with its tender, tough, intimate, and devastating details of human lives. The st
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Dec 16, 2009
David
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I'm a fan of Crunch, one of the great characters in this book. I had the great pleasure of telling that to Mr. Baldwin at a book signing. So he signed my book, "To David, a fan of Crunch, peace, JB" Quite a thrill. I've only sought an autograph on two occasions. My other autograph is from the photographer Brassai. Both men have inspired me and my work.
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Oct 13, 2010
Charity
rated it:
This is my absolute favorite book. I, too, cry and cry and can't keep a copy in my house because I'm always loaning it out. It's epic, loving, devastating, simply beautiful.
All of the love stories in this book are so beautifully complex and delicate. I love this book.
All of the love stories in this book are so beautifully complex and delicate. I love this book.
Feb 03, 2012
Scott
rated it:
Stunning - and more explicit and provocative about sexuality, desire, and bodies than the other works I've loved by Baldwin. Another one of my favorite books of all time; the only other 600-pager I've been utterly unable to put down was Anna Karenina.
Dec 17, 2009
My first Baldwin novel, Another Country, absolutely crushed me--in the best way--when I read it this past summer. Days and days with bits and pieces of it stuck in my head--the undercurrent of the prose, the ruthless dialogue, the brutal examination of race, the fallen angels that are its characters. And now it's been told to me that Just Above My Head devastates even more, though differently. Damn, I had to put the book down since I wasn't quite ready to work through the aftermath--all 584 page
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Jul 05, 2009
Christopher
rated it:
Baldwin's last published fiction, a depiction of the contrast in African-American lives between the 1950s and late 1970s. It's a brilliant, long work, but feels like only half a novel: was a sequel in the works? I'd like to know how it ends.
May 31, 2009
Monica
rated it:
I waited a long time after I had finished this book to give it a review. I couldn't find the words to accurately describe this book and still can't. All I can say is that it is a marvelous, powerful, intense, crazy work of art and those descriptive words hardly do it justice. This book is not for everyone as it touches on many controversial themes (at least in my old school, growing up, Catholic, Midwestern neighborhood) but it is one of the best books I have read in a long time. It starts t
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Jan 04, 2011
Amber
rated it:
"He told me that I was not barren, that child birth takes many forms, that regret is a kind of aboration, that sorrow is the only key to joy."
Breathtaking novel from beginning to end.
Breathtaking novel from beginning to end.
Dec 16, 2009
Patrick
rated it:
One the most important books I have ever read. Gorgeous writing about the frantic, necessary, and divine ways men love each other through the physical... about the numerous shifting terrors of being a black adolescent in the Klan-infested American South... about how some of the truest love is born of unidealized suffering and fear. If you do not know James Baldwin, you do not know.
"What the world calls morality is nothing but a dream of safety. That's how the world gets to be More...
"What the world calls morality is nothing but a dream of safety. That's how the world gets to be More...
Feb 22, 2010
Melissa
rated it:
This is my favorite book by James Baldwin. Hands. Down. Baldwin had this ability to write beautifully tragic scenes and still make you laugh. That was this ENTIRE book.
Feb 09, 2012
Neenah
rated it:
Dear Lawd Jesus!!!!! DamndamndamnJAMES!
It was a song, a poem, an enterprise of faith. I am too attached to this book, the mechanics of Baldwin's writing & its content to be very objective in reviewing it.
Suffice it to say, if you have no knowledge of tradition gospel music, you will miss the grace of this text. As a music head & a girl grow'd up in the Chu'ch, this hit home....but beyond that...aaahhh!
I cannot, it is too close to me.
This is o More...
It was a song, a poem, an enterprise of faith. I am too attached to this book, the mechanics of Baldwin's writing & its content to be very objective in reviewing it.
Suffice it to say, if you have no knowledge of tradition gospel music, you will miss the grace of this text. As a music head & a girl grow'd up in the Chu'ch, this hit home....but beyond that...aaahhh!
I cannot, it is too close to me.
This is o More...
Dec 21, 2009
Chi Chi
rated it:
When I walked into Half Price, I wasn't even familiar with this title. Now it's one of my favorite books. I love it when that happens. Baldwin is definitely one of my favorite writers. He writes with such warmth and understanding of his characters.
Oct 06, 2009
Marion
rated it:
Perhaps because of its length, the intensity of this faltered. Perhaps because in relation to Another Country, nothing is intense
Mar 01, 2011
Kit
rated it:
James Baldwin has quickly become one of my favorite writers of all, and this book is downright extraordinary. A true American epic, I'd recommend this to just about anyone capable of reading...including you.
Oct 10, 2011
Carolyn
rated it:
One of the most awesome books in my personal library. I have read it three times and each time find something new.
Sep 07, 2009
RK
rated it:
this was just splendid. how can you write and not try to, on some level, recreate this book?
Jan 14, 2009
Paula
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amazing, poetic, beuatiful flow between narative, political theory, and hot sex scenes.
Jun 25, 2010
Lianne
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Really enjoyed this book. Was gripped by the story and the characters. The writing was very good, including some harrowing events, told bluntly which made them even more harrowing. Worth a read.
Dec 10, 2007
Christopher
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My first foray into James Baldwin - this is a beautiful and tragic book that relies on a tale expertly told to elucidate the world view of a man essential to America's understanding of itself.
More than a month has passed since I finished it and I still don't really know what to make of it. There are no lessons, there really seems like no ending, it just lays out a narrative of events and leaves you to think about the meaning - and yes, the novel is as outstanding as this review is t More...
More than a month has passed since I finished it and I still don't really know what to make of it. There are no lessons, there really seems like no ending, it just lays out a narrative of events and leaves you to think about the meaning - and yes, the novel is as outstanding as this review is t More...
Jun 08, 2011
Todd
rated it:
Passages were so poetic that I found myself copying them onto index cards.
