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janasf26's review against another edition
3.0
I love his writing, but some of the stories just didn't draw me in....
read_like_a_mother's review against another edition
4.0
Really good! Some of the stories really disturbed me, especially "The Man Child" and "Going to Meet the Man."
05hamiltonk's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
4.0
realitybytes's review against another edition
5.0
These stories are brutal. Scarier than anything by Stephen King.
the_moving_lips's review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
**Thank you Penguin Classics and NetGalley for having offered me a copy in exchange for a honest review**
(Recensione in italiano in fondo)
🇬🇧
I took my time to review this collection of short stories written by James Baldwin. This already happened with “No Name In The Street”, which left me many reflections and yet I was left speechless, but one thing I can say: Baldwin is a great author and I hope these new editions of his books make his words spread further among new generations of readers.
Nostalgia, joy, despair, grief, fear, rage, sadness, disgust, love. A vertigo of emotions and feelings hold together by a writing style that is nearly biblical, poetic and yet raw, realistic. Every story was a punch in the stomach and at the end of everyone I wept. Thanks to “Going To Meet The Man” I could travel in 50s Paris and discover its trendiest night clubs and in New York jazz clubs; in the awful Southern States of America. I got to know poets, musicians, farmers, women and men in love, actors and filmmakers, Saints. I felt rage, sadness, disgust and nostalgia. The dizziness of literature, the beauty of reading.
I empathised with the man in characters, but I also despised them. I got indignant and disgusted by the last story, so cruel. Yes, James Baldwin was a great author, and these short stories show it.
🇮🇹
Mi sono presa un po’ di tempo per recensire questa raccolta di racconti scritti da James Baldwin. Già “No Name In The Street” mi aveva lasciata con tantissime riflessioni eppure ero rimasta senza parole, così è accaduto con questo. Una cosa posso dire subito: Baldwin è un grandissimo autore e spero che grazie alle nuove edizioni dei suoi libri le sue parole vengano diffuse ancora di più fra le nuove generazioni di lettorə.
Nostalgia, gioia, disperazione, lutto, paura, rabbia, tristezza, disgusto, amore. Un vortice di emozioni e sentimenti umani conditi da una scrittura quasi biblica, poetica, eppure cruda e realistica. Ogni racconto era un pugno allo stomaco e a ogni conclusione un pianto pieno. Grazie a “Going to Meet the Man” ho potuto viaggiare nella Parigi degli anni ‘50 tra i locali notturni più trendy e nella New York dei jazz club; nei terribili Sud degli Stati Uniti. Ho conosciuto poeti, musicisti, contadini, uomini e donne innamorate, attori e registi, Santi. Ho provato paura, tristezza, disgusto e nostalgia. La vertigine letteraria, la bellezza del leggere.
Ho empatizzato con i protagonisti, ma anche disprezzo. Mi indignata e disgustata con l’ultimo racconto, orribile, crudele. James Baldwin sì che è un grande autore, anche i suoi racconti lo dimostrano.
(Recensione in italiano in fondo)
🇬🇧
I took my time to review this collection of short stories written by James Baldwin. This already happened with “No Name In The Street”, which left me many reflections and yet I was left speechless, but one thing I can say: Baldwin is a great author and I hope these new editions of his books make his words spread further among new generations of readers.
Nostalgia, joy, despair, grief, fear, rage, sadness, disgust, love. A vertigo of emotions and feelings hold together by a writing style that is nearly biblical, poetic and yet raw, realistic. Every story was a punch in the stomach and at the end of everyone I wept. Thanks to “Going To Meet The Man” I could travel in 50s Paris and discover its trendiest night clubs and in New York jazz clubs; in the awful Southern States of America. I got to know poets, musicians, farmers, women and men in love, actors and filmmakers, Saints. I felt rage, sadness, disgust and nostalgia. The dizziness of literature, the beauty of reading.
I empathised with the man in characters, but I also despised them. I got indignant and disgusted by the last story, so cruel. Yes, James Baldwin was a great author, and these short stories show it.
🇮🇹
Mi sono presa un po’ di tempo per recensire questa raccolta di racconti scritti da James Baldwin. Già “No Name In The Street” mi aveva lasciata con tantissime riflessioni eppure ero rimasta senza parole, così è accaduto con questo. Una cosa posso dire subito: Baldwin è un grandissimo autore e spero che grazie alle nuove edizioni dei suoi libri le sue parole vengano diffuse ancora di più fra le nuove generazioni di lettorə.
Nostalgia, gioia, disperazione, lutto, paura, rabbia, tristezza, disgusto, amore. Un vortice di emozioni e sentimenti umani conditi da una scrittura quasi biblica, poetica, eppure cruda e realistica. Ogni racconto era un pugno allo stomaco e a ogni conclusione un pianto pieno. Grazie a “Going to Meet the Man” ho potuto viaggiare nella Parigi degli anni ‘50 tra i locali notturni più trendy e nella New York dei jazz club; nei terribili Sud degli Stati Uniti. Ho conosciuto poeti, musicisti, contadini, uomini e donne innamorate, attori e registi, Santi. Ho provato paura, tristezza, disgusto e nostalgia. La vertigine letteraria, la bellezza del leggere.
Ho empatizzato con i protagonisti, ma anche disprezzo. Mi indignata e disgustata con l’ultimo racconto, orribile, crudele. James Baldwin sì che è un grande autore, anche i suoi racconti lo dimostrano.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Racism, Torture, and Murder
Moderate: Murder
epaulette's review against another edition
4.5
This is the kind of book I wish I was reading for English class. I want to sit with these stories more and try to understand some of them more clearly. This is my first time reading Baldwin's fiction and I really enjoyed his descriptions and prose, as well as the way he really captures nuance and humanity and complicated, imperfect people.
violetlain's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
valouriousknight's review against another edition
5.0
This is not a cheerful read
But it is a necessary read. Baldwin pulls no punches in writing down black reality throughout his lifetime. These texts provide both fiction and truth, in ways that will scar your soul.
But it is a necessary read. Baldwin pulls no punches in writing down black reality throughout his lifetime. These texts provide both fiction and truth, in ways that will scar your soul.
creekhiker's review against another edition
5.0
Wow. James Baldwin is an absolute master. I've read and taught "Sonny's Blues," so many times over the years, but this is the first time I've read this entire collection, and it just devastated me in that way only the best fiction and writing can do. He writes from so many different POVs and perspectives, from the perspective of young kids, with two stories following the same two kids, as the older of the two, and the only one from the mothers pre-married life, endures the hate of his step-father, and the loneliness of his love for his best friend; he writes from the perspective a black woman in her twenties living in Greenwich Village and sleeping with an unfaithful white artist; he writes from the perspective of a musician who lived in France for 12 years, and now is facing returning to America with his white Swedish wife and his son who has never known racism and hate; and in the very last story in the collection, and the most devastating, he writes from the perspective of a Southern white deputy, facing the civil unrest and civil disobedience of the civil rights movement, and he remembers not just nearly beating a black man he arrested earlier, but then dips deeper back in his memory to remember the first lynching his father and mother took him too, in all its graphic horror. The feat of empathy that Baldwin achieved to write the voice of that white man filled with such hate and confusion, and to imagine him as an eight year old innocent, who loses his innocence, is truly astonishing.