About this title: A young black man in Harlem begins to confront the legacy of anger and guilt he has inherited from his family. The story also explores the ways in which racial oppression has shaped the life of the family and the ways in which they try to use religion to establish order amid the chaos created by racism and sex. James Baldwin's first major novel is based loosely on his own background.
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Dell
Date Published: 06/15/1980
ISBN-13:9780440330073ISBN:0440330076
Description: Fair. 0440330076 Go Tell It on the Mountain-Used book in acceptable condition. Spine, cover and pages will show wear. This volume may have any/all of the following: Textual marks; Moisture spots; Foxing; Bent Pages/Covers; Small Tears; Weak Hinges; Highlighting. Mass Market. Binding: Paperback ISBN13: 9780440330073 Size: 4.2 x 6.7 x.6 in. We are professional and prompt. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Dell
Date Published: 1980
ISBN-13:9780440330073ISBN:0440330076
Description: Good. Softback edition in good condition. Clean, former library book with usual stamps, etc. No other markings or highlightings. read more
Binding: Perfect Bound Paper
Publisher: Laurel Leaf, New York, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1985
ISBN-13:9780440330073ISBN:0440330076
Description: Good + Mass Market Paperback. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Light to moderate wear, crease to front wrap. Age yellowing/foxing. Binding tight, pages clean. read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Dell
Date Published: 1980
ISBN-13:9780440330073ISBN:0440330076
Description: A good reading copy only. A former school book with the usual identifiers. Book has tanning or browning due to normal aging process. -, Hard Cover, Good / read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
Description: Good. Light shelf wear and minimal interior marks. Millions of satisfied customers and climbing. Thriftbooks is the name you can trust, guaranteed. Spend Less. Read More. read more
"I was disappointed with this book. When I first started reading it, there was something queer about the main character John. That got me interested. He didn't fit in with his family or his community, and in his wandering around the city, I thought he was going to cast out on his own, building some kind of new existence.
That didn't happen, and maybe I was a bit naive in wanting it. After finishing, I thought about the open environments for a black man in this time period, and obviously, there weren't many. It wasn't so easy to just start out and see what happened. That sucks, but after I thought about that, why Baldwin chose to make his protagonist of Giovanni's Room white made a lot more sense. I read that Baldwin left the United States to move to France in order to escape racism, but even in France, it was easier for a white man to navigate the world and create his own space in it.
The writing was beautiful, and his weaving of the different plots together was really great. I was not so interested in religion, and that was a difficulty in this book.
I was interested in Baldwin's depictions of men as just pathetic. They come off as violent, unpredictable, and untrustworthy. Florence said at one point that there was no woman that could escape the burden of the man, and the father was a perfect example of that. That kind of onerous, antagonistic relationship really troubled me, and the fact that no man really gets along in the book was troubling too. The feeling of tension with violence and hate under the surface between the father and John was intense. I wonder why these masculine relationships were so terrible and lacking in communication or trust.
I only gave the book three stars, but after writing this review, I feel that it deserves more. This is definitely not my favorite Baldwin book. I enjoyed Giovanni's Room much more, but that might be because I am gay and I like when men get together in good ways (Maybe that is Baldwin's way around these terrible relationships between heterosexual men...). I also enjoyed many of Baldwin's essays on race and America, but from what I could discern from my reading, this is the novel that most represents Baldwin's oeuvre."
"The power of Baldwin's descriptive pen is mighty. It's mind blowing. He is so philosophical, so observent that I cannot even compare him to anything I have ever read before. Baldwin's pains are so well written through each character o his book. He describes the African American church so well it feels like you are really present in the praying sessions. The poor man has have been heavily indoctrinated at such a young age that he expressed his story with such great authority and knowledge. The most poignent part of his story is the racial oppression of black Americans in the early part of 1900s. He paints a very real picture of NY's Harlem and lives of those who live in poverty. This book is one of the best readings I have had in a decade. It's a very profound story and extremely well written."
"More mystical and readable than the other biggie of Harlem lit, "Invisible Man", the tale told is like a prism that breaks into different lights, different lives filled to the brim with hardship. The Grimes family is led by the patriarch who is a fanatic. The family struggles to find their own religion by their own means. The father is the bad guy because he is so blinded by his devotion that nothing comes second...
There are brief glimpses into the racial issues that have marked African-Americans for ages, all prejudices still alive. Baldwin knows how to terrify by bombarding his prose with religious motifs--- this writer is serious, these characters are serious and so is religion."
"This is the only book that I have ever finished and went right back to the beginning and started reading again. Baldwin's writing in this book is intensely passionate about the subject of religious notions of good and evil. It is a story about what it means to aspire to be godly and have that aspiration cut out into a worldly sense of right and wrong. There is much in this book about the body and desire and how humans try and put desire in a box and label it wrong and "ungodly". It is written, much like "Moby Dick", making you feel like you are actually at sea with the narrator, your reading experience is allowing you to feel like you are actually experiencing a Southern, Baptist church. The prose made me feel like I was actually experiencing a "possession" by God while reading about it. I don't know why so many classrooms focus on "Giovani's Room" by Baldwin, this book is so much more rich."
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