(Untitled)

[bookelfe]

I have to admit that I've been putting off talking about James Baldwin's Notes of a Native Son and The Fire Next Time, because I don't quite know how to do it. I mean, they are ridiculously brilliant - the man can write, he's got that deceptively straightforward humanistic eloquence that makes you feel sort of ashamed of yourself whenever you find

Comments

[rahkan]

Notes of a Native Son was really good. I read it more thsn a year ago, so I might not remember it exsctly, but I believe that psrts of it were about moving to Europe and almost letting go of his African-American identity in the process of learning to write well. Or, maybe that's not it. There's an essay in there in which he tslks about having, or being able to, assert all of America's cultural history for oneself. That resonated alot for me. You know, they are my cathedrals too. And it's my Shakespeare and my Dickens too. And in order to write in America, or as an American, it reslly does help to fully process and eliminate that gap between your culture and your identity.

Have you read any of his novels. Tell It On The Mountain is hypnotizing (and kind of structurally awesome too). Giovanni's Room is pretty decent as well...but in retrospect kind of...thin, maybe? Although I liked it alot when I read it.

[bookelfe]

I wouldn't call it letting go of his identity so much as coming to terms with the relationship between Europe and America, and how Europe and America relate differently to race, and what that means for cultural heritage - which all sounds very dry when I say it but is really so intensely personal and resonant.

I read Another Country back at Stanford in Colm Toibin's class, but I don't think it much sunk in at all (which makes me want to shake my younger self a little, because I would like to remember it!) Go Tell It On the Mountain is almost definitely going to be the next thing I read by him.

[rahkan]

Yep, I don't have exactly the right terms for what he was talking about. But it was very affecting. Especially the part about them there cathedrals. I do remember that.

You know, I wonder why this post of yours has no comments? All your other posts have a large number of comments. This post almost feels like its located in the same desolate exurb as my blog.

[bookelfe]

Yeah, that will stick with me too, I think. (That, and his extremely awkward dinner with the militant group that believed the apocalypse was nigh.)

Only my Wacky Comedy Posts get lots of comments! Most of the time my non-lulzy book reviews get pretty much the same response yours do - one or two conversation-starters from people who have read it, and polite silence from everyone else. I think that is probably pretty standard for book reviewing.