52 Books, Week 15: Go Tell It On The Mountain
Since I’m flying [when i wrote this] from DC to Minneapolis to California, I figured I would take the opportunity to catch up on some of these book reflections. By the way I’ve been in the hour for like 6 hours, and I can no longer feel my ass. Writing this also allows me to effectively ignore the woman sitting next to me, who wants to talk. No thanks.
Back to the matter at hand. This book really made me want to read more Baldwin. I’m pretty sure I read this story when I was in middle school, because a lot of the characters and situations seemed very familiar to me… I think this is supposed to be a semi-autobiographical novel about Baldwin’s experience, and it really seems like he poured his soul into this book. So much so, that you can forgive the minor flaws, and the fact that the prone drones on in some places.
Today I was having coffee with a colleague of mine who runs a non-profit, and we started talking about who my favorite authors were, and I was like man that’s a great question.
The third person I said was James Baldwin. His writing is really inviting, but his characters are flawed in beautifully subtle ways. They almost reek of vulnerability, which surprisingly makes them endearing. Baldwin has a way of shading even the most shady character (in this case a hypocrite who beats his kids and his wife) so you believe that even he has the chance to be redeemed. Stories about redemption always go down easy… Holler at it.
- By the way Week14 was Blink by one of my co-con's personal God's (Gladwell). This was the 2005 "it" book, although I found it less satisfying than the Tipping Point.
Read the Amazon.com reviews, I don’t think its possible for anyone to say anything new about this one.
Labels: 52 Books
posted by The Generalist at 5:01 PM
3 Comments:
james baldwin has a wonderful way of being able to observe the world... as an "outsider" (i know that sounds strange) and relate it in beautiful language... i really think he's an understated genius.
-leah-
Blink, in my opinion, was a fire book. I actually wrote a review on it in my blog, since I read it about a month ago. Granted, I'm just starting the Tipping Point now, so I can't really compare, but for someone as interested in the thought process as I am, Blink was perfect. I guess I'm somewhat curious about why you didn't find it as satisfying?
Yeah,
I don't know what my deal was with Blink. It could be that a good friend of mine, gave the book a horrible review right before I read it (which I concede may have had an impact). Additionally, I read a lot of articles about the book before I read it including an article by Gladwell, and also watched an extended interview with the author. There just wasn't a lot new for me to learn. I enjoyed the Tipping Point a lot more. However, I'll probably read anything this guy writes...
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