A review by teelight
Conversations with James Baldwin by James Baldwin

4.0

When it comes to Baldwin's interviews I think I prefer watching and listening to them to reading them. Tone is so important in an interview and it doesn't come across as well in written form. I appreciate these interviews because they flesh out his thoughts on some of his books and they show some of the fire he had (especially in the interview with the English man, it seems like in written form they just spent an hour yelling at each other). I think the problem I had with this book is actually mentioned in the introduction. Many of the ideas and themes are repeated over and over again in the interviews. If anything I come out impressed at how consistent Baldwin was in his answers over the years.

For people that are really into James Baldwin I would recommend this. For people just getting into him I would say start with his fiction or essays and work up to this down the road.