Book Review #6
Another Country
by James Baldwin
Although a more ambitious book than his masterpiece "Go Tell It on the Mountain," this was for me a letdown. If "Mountain" read and sang like gospel, this played like jazz, riffing on race, sex, anger, shame, frustration, betrayal, self-hatred, self-pity, insecurity, disgust, depression, passion, misery, loneliness, confusion, despair and the pain of being in love.
The opening chapter of the book was so ugly and sordid and filled with such rage that I questioned whether or not I wanted to continue reading the novel. Rufus, a man at the end of his rope, reminded me of Nelson Algren's protagonist, a broke and broken man, riding the rails, in "Somebody in Boots." Another tough read.
At times the dialogue seemed stilted or pedestrian and flat. And yet there were passages that came furiously alive, like the heated, passionate exchange between Richard and Cass, or the chapter involving Eric and Yves in France, which was as romantic as it was sensual.
I also found many of the encounters arbitrary, leading to scenes that were histrionic and melodramatic, verging on soap opera.
In "Another Country" James Baldwin writes this about one of his characters: "Love was a country he knew nothing about." It could also be true about any one of his characters. Or any one of us
by James Baldwin
Although a more ambitious book than his masterpiece "Go Tell It on the Mountain," this was for me a letdown. If "Mountain" read and sang like gospel, this played like jazz, riffing on race, sex, anger, shame, frustration, betrayal, self-hatred, self-pity, insecurity, disgust, depression, passion, misery, loneliness, confusion, despair and the pain of being in love.
The opening chapter of the book was so ugly and sordid and filled with such rage that I questioned whether or not I wanted to continue reading the novel. Rufus, a man at the end of his rope, reminded me of Nelson Algren's protagonist, a broke and broken man, riding the rails, in "Somebody in Boots." Another tough read.
At times the dialogue seemed stilted or pedestrian and flat. And yet there were passages that came furiously alive, like the heated, passionate exchange between Richard and Cass, or the chapter involving Eric and Yves in France, which was as romantic as it was sensual.
I also found many of the encounters arbitrary, leading to scenes that were histrionic and melodramatic, verging on soap opera.
In "Another Country" James Baldwin writes this about one of his characters: "Love was a country he knew nothing about." It could also be true about any one of his characters. Or any one of us
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