- Paperback: 256 pages
- Publisher: Vintage; Reissue edition (April 25 1995)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0679761799
- ISBN-13: 978-0679761792
- Product Dimensions: 13.1 x 1.4 x 20.3 cm
- Shipping Weight: 204 g
- Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #247,858 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Product Description
"There's no way not to suffer. But you try all kinds of ways to keep from drowning in it." The men and women in these eight short fictions grasp this truth on an elemental level, and their stories, as told by James Baldwin, detail the ingenious and often desperate ways in which they try to keep their head above water. It may be the heroin that a down-and-out jazz pianist uses to face the terror of pouring his life into an inanimate instrument. It may be the brittle piety of a father who can never forgive his son for his illegitimacy. Or it may be the screen of bigotry that a redneck deputy has raised to blunt the awful childhood memory of the day his parents took him to watch a black man being murdered by a gleeful mob.
By turns haunting, heartbreaking, and horrifying--and informed throughout by Baldwin's uncanny knowledge of the wounds racism has left in both its victims and its perpetrators--Going to Meet the Man is a major work by one of our most important writers.
By turns haunting, heartbreaking, and horrifying--and informed throughout by Baldwin's uncanny knowledge of the wounds racism has left in both its victims and its perpetrators--Going to Meet the Man is a major work by one of our most important writers.
Ingram
A collection of eight short stories that explore with devastating frankness the roots of love, hate, and racial conflict. By turns haunting, heartbreaking, and horrifying, this is a major work by one of America's quintessential writers.
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Most helpful customer reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
a well-written dossier of African-American life circa 1950,
By lazza (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Going to Meet the Man: Stories (Paperback)
'Going to Meet the Man' is a diverse collection of short stories which attempt to explain the psyche of young black American boys/men in the early 1950s. Yes, there is anger and frustration. But the author's excellent prose elevate the stories beyond stereotype. He is compassionate without making these characters into martyrs of white America.Of course many will argue these stories are badly dated. And true, America has moved on (generally for the better) since the early 1950s. But it would be unfortunate to overlook these stories for this reason. Baldwin captures the essence of where American society has come from, and we can all learn from history. I also feel it is unfortunate that nearly all the readers of "Going to Meet The Man' will be African-Americans, unlike myself (..who have the most to learn). Bottom line: terrific tidbits showing Baldwin's brilliance. A worthy read.
5.0 out of 5 stars
To be a man may give you the blues!,
By
This review is from: Going to Meet the Man: Stories (Paperback)
A fabulous collection of short stories that have not really aged in spite of the forty years gone since they were first published.Sonny's Blues is a real gem because it shows three ways out of deprevation, out of the mental ghetto that grows in a real ghetto, like Harlem, out of desperation and dereliction. One can go upward in society, become a teacher, through hard studies, get married, raise a family. In one way, accept the American Dream and forget about the tragedy, or the nightmare. « God Save the American Republic ! » One can get into music and into a completely different world of imagination, art, harmony, research, rhythm, melody, all that the world does not provide. That is the Blues, Jazz, the fairyland of OZ. Unluckily you have to go there and come back. « God pity us, the terrified republic ! » And one can get into heroin, the fabulous horse of American history, the mythical horse of the Great Plains, the mystical horse of the Railroads, the heavenlike horse of Indians and Blacks. Forget all that and shoot your veins. « He who sees his veins can see his pains ! » James Baldwin is a master in the field of transforming human pain into heavenly light by sharing it with our souls. It does not erase the pain. It just makes it luminous, the light of a new way to some hazardous future. « But where danger is, rescue is ready too », as Hölderlin used to say. Dr Jacques COULARDEAU
5.0 out of 5 stars
A good collection of short stories!,
By Robert Ortiz (The Southwest) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Going to Meet the Man: Stories (Paperback)
Each of the stories contained in this book deal frankly and honestly with the fear and agony associated with love, hate, prejudice and the suffering humans endure at the hands of their fellow man. All the stories are intense, haunting and in the case of the title story, "Going to Meet the Man", just plain chilling. Other notable stories are "The Man Child", "Sonny's Blues" and "Previous Condition". This is a good place to start if you're just discovering James Baldwin. Also recommended are his novels, "Giovanni's Room", "Another Country" and "Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone".
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