Reviews with content warning for Death - Going to Meet the Man

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin

7 reviews

mayawinshell's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.5

these are all stories about suffering in some regard, but beware, the final story in the collection (i read them in order) sickened me so much that i had trouble recollecting the other stories i’d just read. so before all else, huge TW for the eponymous tale Going to Meet the Man (CW: horrific, graphic lynch mob scene and copious use of slurs). to be clear, the story is not bad or poorly written—in fact it’s written with the immersive level of detail i’ve come to expect from any baldwin i read—so for that reason, only go into it if you’re ready for all that. it is terrifying and disturbing

below, i have placed the short stories in this collection in order from i think most re-readable to least (my “favorites” first? i suppose?)

Sonny’s Blues (fantastic narrative structure for a short story (starting in the present, then jumping to a reflective past, which we stay in through the end of the tale, leaving us wondering what will happen now). the characters and their familial dynamics felt so real in such little time/so few pages, and i was left feeling very, very moved by the final scene in the jazz bar and the final lines of the sorry. such vivid, mesmerizing, loving descriptions of jazz and the people that play it)
The Outing (an exciting expansion on characters i became so familiar with through first reading Go Tell It On the Mountain. sweet, sad, and altogether interesting. i like that baldwin kind of cracks the delicate egg of john’s possiblr queerness, which can be read just barely between the lines in GTIOTM, but is given clearer focus here)
Come Out the Wilderness (i have seen people critique baldwin writing women but i quite like the way he writes them. i do! idk if there’s a way to capture the entirety of womanhood correctly, but i think he takes women seriously, which is crucial. i think this story is so, so sad: a crumbling/crumbled relationship, internalized racism and low self esteem, feelings of being just totally lost. it’s sensitive, honest, very good)
Previous Condition (i’m just now starting Another Country and the two works remind me of one another—a Black man protagonist suffering, going positively mad from the exhausting and never ending trials of american anti-Black racism, surrounded by white friends and lovers who will never, never understand what it is to be Black in america. this short reads pretty modern, and it’s bleak, and again, it’s amazing how much he can bring a character to life in so few pages)
This Morning, This Evening, So Soon (this one’s got some actual joy in it between the mixed, mostly negative feelings, and an ever-rare loving relationship in these pages about so much pain and oftentimes, emotional abuse. its most unique thematic exploration regards the different experiences for Black people in America vs in France, and for Black Americans vs Black Arab Africans in France)
The Rockpile (i liked this one but coming right out of reading Go Tell It On the Mountain—and this is the very first short story in the collection—it wasn’t a super fresh update to the characters, and didn’t captivate me the most. still a well written story with gorgeous prose of course)
The Man Child (this one had a really interesting southern gothic quality to it, ultimately ending in a scene of true horror, but it struck a pretty different tone than all the rest of the stories. much more mysterious motivations for its antagonist. he’s another na who’s been pushed to the edge of his sanity, though, that’s for sure)
Going to Meet the Man (just so NOT re-readable. as i said at the top: really horrible content. it’s a very thorough journey into the dark, entrapped, panicking mind of a racist, violent bigot. the flashback to childhood is a haunting scene. it’s a tonal shock and a major perspective shift).

as always: james baldwin is spectacular. the blues and jazz are common threads throughout that weave in seamlessly. i’d recommend this to anyone looking for gorgeous prose and dark meditations on selfhood and american racism… he’s always brilliant

Content Warnings

bibliorama's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional fast-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

4.0

James Baldwin is a great writer and he makes it easy to fall into the narrative of each short story. You know it's interesting when it has me googling articles for the summaries and meanings to each story like I'm back in school. I can tell this one will get better upon rereads.

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asililydying's review against another edition

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4.25

Sonny's Blues and Previous Condition are my favorites, Going To Meet The Man itself as a story may be the most disgusting thing I have ever read ~ not unintentionally of course.

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rzh's review against another edition

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dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

as with most short story collections, this is difficult to review. the very medium itself preempts a “mixed bag” of stories, either all too similar or inevitably containing a few duds. this is arguably even moreso the case with baldwin, who with his careful crafting of character and scene being one of the main reasons i fell in love with his writing, perhaps wouldn’t be able to develop those as well in a shorter medium. of course, his books are short anyway; but the characters are forged so lovingly and vividly in them that i wasn’t entirely sure if i was going to connect to the characters in his short stories as well as i did in his novels/novellas. well: i did! for the most part. each story feels like it is held together by a common thread: according to the blurb, the “role of inherited prejudice in shaping man’s destiny”: inevitably for a baldwin piece, this takes the shape of racism, sexism and homophobia. the family dynamics play a starring role in most of the stories, whether this be to the benefit of the characters in question or to their downfall. some stories give me echoes of baldwin’s other work, like the american in paris in “This Morning, This Evening” (a la Giovanni’s Room), the lament of sonny’s brother at his incarceration (a la If Beale Street Could Talk), and the church community with the closeted young boys in “The Outing” (a la Go Tell it On the Mountain”). though i understand that baldwin is want to explore the same themes throughout his work, i couldnt help but wish for a fresher perspective, rather than the same feelings and emotions over again.

the last eponymous story was absolutely haunting. the weakest stories, i felt, were “Previous Condition” and “Come Out the Wilderness”; which just felt like sketches at best. saying that, i do think baldwin is extraordinarily good at writing women and portraying women’s voices in general; the woman in the latter story felt uncharacteristically underdeveloped.

a mixed bag, but overall a good collection with a decent length for short stories: would recommend to someone who wants to dip their toe into short-form fiction. 3.75/5 stars.

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ileanavill's review against another edition

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challenging

4.0

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halceeeeeeeee's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.0

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eddyn's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

If i had to choose one piece of writing that moved me the most inside it has to be this story. Like a ride through a town, an uneasy glance at a window, it is short and effective, yet somehow genius at pointing out the slow agony of the different characters: this book is like a series of slowed frames in a movie that stay printed at the back of my brain, full of questions unanswered.

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