Rachel's review
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin
Sometimes I read fiction I love and a part of me thinks, if I had writing training, and a good idea, and took the time to sit down and write, I could write this.
James Baldwin, in comparison, makes me think I should never write anything so complicated as a grocery list again.
This book is about a boy on his fourteenth birthday struggling with his identity. Baldwin's writing turns it into a passionate, profound struggle with adolesence, family, American history, urbanization, sexualilty, religion, memory, and hope.
I could read the sentences where John interacts with his mother again and again and never understand how a writer can so perfectly capture incomplete communication and ways of knowing.
James Baldwin, in comparison, makes me think I should never write anything so complicated as a grocery list again.
This book is about a boy on his fourteenth birthday struggling with his identity. Baldwin's writing turns it into a passionate, profound struggle with adolesence, family, American history, urbanization, sexualilty, religion, memory, and hope.
I could read the sentences where John interacts with his mother again and again and never understand how a writer can so perfectly capture incomplete communication and ways of knowing.
