Cannonball Read 18

Sticking It to Cancer One Book at a Time

A Harlem Love Story

If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin

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I’d never read any Baldwin before, but he kept coming up in conversations, books, and of course, movies.  I took it as a sign that it was time to read some James Baldwin, and I thought I’d start with If Beale Street Could Talk, just to get to it before the movie, which looks great. First, in case there was any doubt: Baldwin can write.  The construction of the narrative, the careful plotting, the realistic dialogue, the direct but poignant tone.  It was just … […]

Perfect

If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin

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If Beale Street Could Talk is sublime. For those who saw the movie, not everything in the novel stays the same, there are some scenes that I assume were cut for time. I thought that the way this ended was pretty perfect though.             This book is told from the POV of 18 year old Tish. She is dealing with the effects of her fiancee Fonny being locked up after he was accused of rape. You think that this would […]

But I don’t care how many times you change your ways, what’s in you is in you, and it’s got to come out

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CBR10Bingo: White Whale I know why this book sat on my shelf for so long. I read Giovanni’s Room several years ago, and while I loved James Baldwin’s writing, I really did not care for the story, particularly the way it ended. I’ve picked up Go Tell It on the Mountain several times when looking for my next read, and each time, I put it away, never quite in the right mood for this book that felt too heavy with expectation and history, like a […]

It’s not possible to forget anybody you’ve destroyed.

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This novel came out in 1962 and deals with various love….triangles, quadrangles, quintangles…the entire sexual framework of the USA as it deals with bisexuality, homosexuality, heterosexuality, and queerness in general. It also deals with those same issues as they relate to race, black and white identity, Americanness, African-Americanness, and even Frenchness/French Colonialness. All of this leads to an earnest and devastating novel that bloodied and beautiful mix of pain, sadness, love, sexual energy, and violence. There’s some parallels and similarities to a few other writers […]

Yours, Mine & Ours: Confronting American Racism

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Reviewed with Ta-Nehisi Coates’ Between the World and Me I started reading The Fire Next Time in the wake of the 2016 presidential election, reeling from the choice that my fellow Americans made and wondering where it all went wrong. Given my liberal/progressive bent, I was personally devastated and still am, and as the data came rolling in about Trump supporters, I was absolutely disgusted and enraged. Whites, including white women, went for Trump. Christians, including Catholics, went for Trump. And despite the initial assumption […]

I Need To Talk About This With Someone

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I originally posted a different review of this book. Two days after finishing it I’m still trying to gather my thoughts into a coherent commentary. This book includes two separate letters – one to Mr. Baldwin’s nephew. That letter is quite short. The second letter takes up the vast majority of the book, and tells stories of Mr. Baldwin’s experiences in Harlem, in the church, and meeting with the leader of the National of Islam. A book I read a couple of weeks ago, “Between […]



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