A review by butterbrioche
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin

challenging emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense

Baldwin’s work will forever be timeless but there’s something about The Fire Next Time that is so rattling, that will cling onto you forever. It really bites you and digs into your skin. I’ll never forget this text. I’ll even come back to it because it will never lose relevance and for him to write this when he did and for it to remain relevant in 2023 is a feat. It’s also sad but Baldwin is not devoid of hope. And his hope spurs mine on as well. I’ll make the hope as bright as the fire. It will burn brighter and stronger. We owe it to Baldwin. We owe it to all of our ancestors.