Reading the 20th Century discussion
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Another Country
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Another Country by James Baldwin (October 2025)
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I'm pretty new to James Baldwin but have been just blown away by his writing in everything I've read so far. His prose is electric, and I don't know how he combines rage, compassion and intellectual rigour so immaculately.
There's a new biography coming out in August that may be of interest: Baldwin: A Love Story, I can't wait to read it.
I'm a huge Baldwin fan, but fairly recently. This was my first of his fiction, and I loved it. I won't be able to fit in a re-read, but will follow the discussion. You're in for a treat. "Electric" is the perfect descriptor, RC.
Since reading [book:The Fire Next Time|464260 a few years ago, I havs have been wanting to return to reading Baldwin. Good to know, Kathleen, that this work is electric!
I'm in!
I read both this and The Fire Next Time when I was in high school. May have been a couple of others that I read then, too. It was the mid-60s. Stuff was going on.
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It must have been amazing to read these during the Civil Rights era.
I've read this one before but it was a while ago so will join in if I can fit it in.
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Who else will be reading this?
I am doing the same. I started already anticipating I would be slower in the long run since I am reading multiple books besides.
I will be. I'm waiting for it to come in at the library. I wish it were in audio format!
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I ask because while I love audio for commuting, exercising etc, I feel that I'm not good with books where the language is as much a character as the... er... characters, as I feel is the case with Baldwin.
But maybe I'm just not as good a listener as you?
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I'm really in awe of how he keeps his writing raw and alive without it feeling uncontrolled. It's rare to capture this sense of living people, flawed and troubled, sometimes doing terrible things.
I'm also interested in the way Baldwin writes about misogyny and male violence - he seems so knowing about it, at a time when it was largely invisible. This kind of self-awareness is extremely unusual, especially at the time this was written.
Roman Clodia wrote: "I'm also interested in the way Baldwin writes about misogyny and male violence - he seems so knowing about it, at a time when it was largely invisible. This kind of self-awareness is extremely unusual, especially at the time this was written."Go Tell It on the Mountain, when you get to it, will shed light on maybe why he had this understanding.
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Roman Clodia wrote: "Out of interest, G, are you able to appreciate the (for want of a better term) 'literary qualities' of books in audio? I ask because while I love audio for commuting, exercising etc, I feel that ..."
I can definitely appreciate the literary qualities of the writing. It wasn't always so. In fact, for a long time I was one of those people who thought that listening to an audiobook wasn't really reading. Then I had a health situation that made reading difficult, and finally listened to my librarian's suggestion that I try audiobooks. At first I'm not sure how much of the literary dimension I could pick up by ear, but to be honest, I'm not sure how much I'd have gotten by reading print at that point. I do find that not every book works well in audio. Also that, like reading in print, different circumstances call for different audiobooks. I listen in the car while driving a lot, and find that I'm more apt in that context to either focus entirely on the literary qualities at the expense of character and plot, or to follow the plot and miss many of the literary qualities. Same would be if I were trying to read a book in print in a situation where my attention was divided.
I also think that after a dozen or more years of using audio books, I've gotten better at listening for the full range of what I look for in print. I can read books in print more easlily than I could when I first turned to audio, but there are still obstacles that make them harder than they once were.
Here's a clip of Baldwin reading from this book. Since I've not started (am picking my copy up today at the library), I don't know where it falls in the book.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trVK9...
Oh yay. There is an audiobook available to me. Glad I checked again--Libby (one of the digital platforms my library uses for audio & e-books) has a glitchy search engine. There's a short wait, so I'll start on the print version in the meantime.
Mod
Yes, there's definitely a skill in listening which we probably lost since films/TV but are reclaiming with audiobooks and podcasts.
As you say, not all books work for all of us in audio. I love listening to non-fiction which holds my interest better than reading. Books with lots of dialogue like John le Carre work very well for me too as well as nineteenth century classics.
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Thank you - it's amazing to hear Baldwin's voice. This clip is from the first part of the book, at a guess around p. 80.
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At various points I've been reminded of Giovanni's Room and the wonderful short story Sonny's Blues, the latter in relation to Rufus.
I'll probably finish today and then will concentrate on the biography.
Roman Clodia wrote: "How's everyone getting on with this? I'm finding it harrowing but brilliant - like pretty much everything else I've read by Baldwin. I'm really in awe of how he keeps his writing raw and alive wi..."
With another 20 % to go, I agree with what you say. It is much different than Giovanni's Room which is a five star read for me and exceptionally tight. Another Country is more rambling and loosely structured but I think is succeeds for this novel. Doing the side read of Baldwin is making both works more appreciated as the biography adds the documented evidence upon which the novel is based. I think I would have been less appreciative reading either book singularly.
roo has many memp
It struck me that Giovanni's Room had many memorable lines. Another Country has instead memorable short passages of several lines.
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It's certainly fascinating to see how Baldwin reworked elements of his life and people he knew in the books.
I've started getting into this now, near the end of the first, long chapter. The writing is wonderful, no surprise. The vividness of the racial tensions from the bigots, of course, from friends and lovers and from within the characters is so honest and alive.
I’m listening to the audio. Nearing the end of chapter 1. I find Baldwin hard to get into, but once the flow starts for me, it keeps on going. I am amazed all over again by the honesty of his writing. And saddened by the experiences he describes.
I'm noticing all of the references to women as "whores" in dialogue. I don't recall seeing that in contemporary fiction, but maybe I don't read enough or notice enough.Was there a point when we stopped seeing that in novels? Do you think it will start anew, once America has again become great?
I think the usage is more a part of the slang usage of the culture and time period rather than of necessarily derogatory intent. There was a lot of generalizing at the time which sounds more negative than it was meant now. Most of those words were also on a spectrum that went up in down in negativity depending on how it was being used, by who, and in what company. I think a lot of times people just used generalizations to sound hip. Now there was plenty of negative usage too, but I react to those certain usages now with much more distaste than I did then. I would liken it to using the word "dick," for a male. It could be intended for serious negative male behaviors, or be tossed about simply because a bartender didn't give someone the pour to which they felt they were entitled.
Jan C wrote: "I read both this and The Fire Next Time when I was in high school. May have been a couple of others that I read then, too. It was the mid-60s. Stuff was going on."I'd forgotten that I more recently listened to Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own by Eddie S. Glaude Jr.. I frequently see Glaude as a commentator on MSNBC. It was interesting. About his later years mostly.
Jan, I also read Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own, and thought it was very profound. It's a good next step for those who've read Baldwin's non-fiction and want hear from someone who has assimilated his ideas apply them to our current day.
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Might it be Black idiom? I ask because it's also used in Sam Selvon's The Housing Lark which is set in 1950s (?) London.
I was looking for a quote "another country" by using search on ebook. Instead I found a list of 100 "another." Ahhh addiction which I have heard described as and have described as "more-ism." A short list of another:
Voyage
Drink
Life
Word
Cigarette
Sandwich
"Song" is another frequent word, about 25 times.I was looking for this quote or near quote:
Perhaps the answer is in the songsMaybe the speaker was trying to find meaning through songs.
But song can so be a ways for the singer to communicate too.
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I seem to remember noting a quote saying 'love is another country' - but the book is no longer on my Kindle so can't check either my memory or who says/thinks this - Rufus? The implication in my reading was that love was a place where he didn't feel at home, where he was always a stranger.
Music is certainly important and, as you say, a way of communication without verbal language. Which reminds me of the powerful depiction of a troubled musician in Sonny's Blues
Roman Clodia.Yes. Thank you for confirming the quote. Your understanding of the quote certainly works and well. I am thinking of rhetorical place. Could be both. Especially since the songs here in this novel often can be understood to be about intimate relationships--all?--being uncomfortable.
In case it helps, I found this in my notes from when I read the book:“Love was a country he knew nothing about.”
Mod
There is also Hartley's "the past is another country"
Thanks Kathleen and Blaine. I see I will have to make some notes even when reading an e-book.
I've found another use of "whore" in a conversation between two white characters. I'm not reaching any conclusions about it yet, as I'm just two-thirds through, but it feels like an important word in the context of one of the key themes of the book: the inauthenticity of the NYC arts culture/industry, along with the racism and homophobia.
I read the term "another country" as referring to all of the separate cultures portrayed in the book, isolated from the "mainstream." But withholding judgment until I finish.
There was some tv series I watched about 2003 about women dating men--professional and wealthy classes. The men were dating many women only once because there is an of single women in New York so that the men can afford to be picky picky. Romance can be a type of addiction, the big addiction that I saw in this novel. When searching for a quote, I looked for "another country" which pulled up 100 instances of "another", most not about romance, all about ways to describe more-ism or addiction. That word search changed my whole understanding of this book and provided a deeper understanding of the nature of addiction.
Blaine, in September I read Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. which I read as a rant against the inauthenticity of the NYC art culture/industry. I recognized the same theme in Another Country, a more serious description. It was a modest neuron-popping experience.
Cynda wrote: "Blaine, in September I read Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. which I read as a rant against the inauthenticity of the NYC art culture/industry. I recognized the same them..."It looks like your review of Bluebeard was truncated, but I take it that you recommend it?
Yes I do Blaine. I link my review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I marked the review as having spoilers because it does name plot points, but it does not describe what happens in the subtext, in the various social elements, in the connections to folktale and myths.
Strangely when I read your review on the book page it is truncated but it's complete in the link you sent me. More bugs in the GR code!
I finished this yesterday during my flight back home and have a lot of thoughts stirring around, particularly about the first chapter of the final section, which answered a lot of the concerns I'd had about the book while reading it. A solid 4* from me.I'll post more here and in my review as the jet lag fog clears.
Mod
Excellent review Blaine.
Thank you.I think G is still reading
Reading the 20th Century
Books mentioned in this topic
Bluebeard (other topics)Bluebeard (other topics)
Sonny's Blues (other topics)
The Housing Lark (other topics)
Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (other topics)Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (other topics)
Sam Selvon (other topics)
Eddie S. Glaude Jr. (other topics)
James Baldwin (other topics)
Another Country
by
James Baldwin
From one of the most important American novelists of the twentieth century—a novel of sexual, racial, political, artistic passions, set in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France.
Stunning for its emotional intensity and haunting sensuality, this book depicts men and women, blacks and whites, stripped of their masks of gender and race by love and hatred at the most elemental and sublime.
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