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A review by ajdotcom
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
5.0
In just 100 pages or so, James Baldwin absolutely blew me away. I really felt his themes of love and anger- not as opposites, but complementing each other. Some of his descriptions, particularly when he recalls first going to church at the beginning of Down at the Cross, I physically felt in my body. I was also struck by how similar Baldwin's words from 1963 are to the leading voices in racial liberation today. This brought home to me how much we owe to the wisdom of ancestors like James Baldwin. Overall, this is a short and accessible book that in no way compromises on its searing tone or emotional impact. I'd recommend it to people of all races and levels of nonfiction reading experience.
I am reviewing this a few months after reading- there absolutely were triggering parts, but I can't remember them in enough detail to put them here.