Reviews tagging 'Injury/Injury detail'

Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin

3 reviews

bibliorama's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Hate crime, Misogyny, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexual content, Violence, Police brutality, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, and Cursing

asililydying's review against another edition

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Hate crime, Homophobia, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Terminal illness, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Police brutality, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Deportation

rzh's review

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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Torture, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Racial slurs