If Beale Street Could Talk - James Baldwin

There's a terrifying sense of stillness woven into the pages of If Beale Street Could Talk. There is no momentum even as the characters change in ways that defy the inertia of the overall plot. You want, you beg, the story to move forward. To find out if Tish is able to save Fonny from a script that every person in the story seems to have already read.

You see, nineteen year old Tish is trying desperately to save her fiance Fonny from the legal system. A system that allowed, well encouraged, a policeman to frame and arrest Fonny for a brutal rape of a woman he'd never met. Fonny's real crime was standing up to this policeman on another day, at another time, in a way that stripped the policeman of his power. And when it comes down to it, the policeman remains intent on righting this "wrong" and showing Fonny who really has the power.

So a newly pregnant Tish must grapple with the hefty price, both emotionally and in cash money, of trying to free Fonny from the system. The gross injustice of his plight makes it no cheaper. The chance for a "speedy trial" ingrained in our constitution is not enough. The efforts of Tish's entire family are not enough. The fact that Tish's mother is willing to travel to Puerto Rico to visit the victim (a victim in many ways - including being used as a pawn against Fonny) isn't enough.

The ripple of injustice courses up and down the generations of both Tish and Fonny's families as we wait and wait and wait for anything to change the circumstances. We wait as Fonny waits, as time warps and seems to lose it's meaning.

Because the lack of pacing in the book, the utter stagnation, is the thing that makes this a very uncomfortable read but also is the essence of the book itself.

4/5 Stars.