A review by akallabeth
Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

james baldwin's semi-autobiographical first novel is incredibly written (as you'd expect), but a tough read for me - it's a short book but a dense one too. 

it deals with some very heavy topics, obviously, but it was maybe the parts that went really deep into evangelical (pentecostal, specifically) christian theology/philosophy/etc how this shapes your worldview that were the biggest challenge for me. this was especially the case for the sections written from the perspective of family patriarch gabriel grimes, an incredibly vividly drawn character, but a difficult one to spend time with.

it's been a while since a book this short (about 250 pages) took me this long to read, but i'm glad i finally picked it up.