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James Baldwin's Another Country: Bookmarked
“Lucid, candid reflections on Black identity.”― KIRKUS Set mainly in Greenwich Village and Harlem, James Baldwin’s 1962 novel, Another Country , is a groundbreaking work of sexual, racial and artistic passions that is stunning for its emotional intensity and haunting sensuality. In her volume in Ig’s acclaimed Bookmarked series, award winning author and essayist Kim McLarin shares her appreciation of this seminal novel, demonstrating how its myriad themes― including relations between men and women (gay and straight, Black and white), the meaning of creativity, and the ecstasy and pain of love―mirror many of her own life experiences. In this critical and personal examination, we come to better understand a pioneering novel and writer, as well as the role race, class and gender have played in Kim’s life, and by extension, contemporary American society.
176 pages, ebook
Published February 9, 2021
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 30, 2021
Another Country is my favorite book by Baldwin, and I really wanted to like this.
While McLarin's criticisms of the misogyny of Baldwin's characters is valid, she seems to think that these were Baldwin's own misogynistic tendencies. Even though she might be right, what she doesn't take into consideration is that maybe the words he gave his characters might have been taken from conversation he had with others, or overheard, or read elsewhere.
This book is really about McLarin-- fair enough-- but her view is specifically that which comes from a cishet woman raised in and by the patriarchy. She tells us she has many gay male friends, but there is never any mention of lesbians, not even Black lesbians. She ignores that there are a lot of women of various colors and sexual orientations that really do not think that romantic love is the most important thing, and there are many women who love sex and think it is very important to them. Not to mention that it tends to belittle sex workers.
While McLarin's criticisms of the misogyny of Baldwin's characters is valid, she seems to think that these were Baldwin's own misogynistic tendencies. Even though she might be right, what she doesn't take into consideration is that maybe the words he gave his characters might have been taken from conversation he had with others, or overheard, or read elsewhere.
This book is really about McLarin-- fair enough-- but her view is specifically that which comes from a cishet woman raised in and by the patriarchy. She tells us she has many gay male friends, but there is never any mention of lesbians, not even Black lesbians. She ignores that there are a lot of women of various colors and sexual orientations that really do not think that romantic love is the most important thing, and there are many women who love sex and think it is very important to them. Not to mention that it tends to belittle sex workers.
February 22, 2021
thoughts coming shortly
January 7, 2026
part-memoir, part literary criticism. i absolutely loved this
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews