I read this in two days. Why? Because James Baldwin is so compelling. Because he has such a wonderful eye for nuance. Baldwin and I have had wildly different life experiences. He grew up in Harlem and was there during the Harlem Riot of 1943 on his 19th birthday. But his words really spoke to me, plainly and beautifully about his experience and his hopes.
The Fire Next Time is a collection of two essays originally published in The New Yorker. The first is a letter written to Baldwin's nephew that explores race in America and how his nephew might experience it. He cautions his nephew away from anger and into a love of self and blackness. An embrace of the Black is Beautiful aspect.
The second essay digs into Baldwin's experience of Christianity and the racist misuse of the gospel. Baldwin spent time as a teenage preacher and the experience led him to turn away from religion altogether. Having seen the inside of the pulpit, he likened it to seeing behind the curtain of a theater and thus being disenchanted with the entire show. One cannot ignore the intersection of race and sexuality and its effect on Baldwin's experience.
The Fire Next Time later became an influence for Ta-Nehisi Coates' Between the World and Me and having now read both, I can see the influence there. While it is a snapshot in time of Baldwin's experience, The Fire Next Time is also timeless in its themes.
4/5 Stars.
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