Going to Meet the Man : Stories

Rating:
Summary: a well-written dossier of African-American life circa 1950
Review: '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.

Rating:
Summary: a well-written dossier of African-American life circa 1950
Review: '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.

Rating:
Summary: To be a man may give you the blues!
Review: 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

Rating:
Summary: The Greatest American Short Story Collection
Review: Baldwin's ability to weave through various times throughout a story is exemplified best in "Sonny's Blues," where he alludes to Isiah with the cup of trembling, and moves through different periods of Harlem, the childhoods and young lives of the narrator and his brother, the constants, in the church and the community and the music, which tells that same story, which must be retold, again and again. The way Baldwin writes about music is virtually unparallelled. In these short stories, he manages to stay clear of the sometimes excessive sentimentality that comes out in novels like Another Country. We sympathize with everyone, we see everyone's need for love, the intense loneliness of human experience, and the individual alienation and experience that results from societal divisions of race and sexuality. The first two stories contain the same characters from his famous first novel Go Tell it on The Mountain. The biblical imagery in these stories is not always pronounced as it may be in Go Tell..., but Baldwin's command of the bible show us the fear and the decadence that it exalts even when the allusions are abstract. The cup of trembling, the sight of the father's foot in the first story. Baldwin is a writer whom people have expected something out of and have been disappointed with because he does not fit into the desired mold of the black writer or the gay writer or even the american writer. He can be an objective political essayist or a sentimental dramatist, and here, he offers cold, somewhat detatched portraits of american lives which are among the best portraits of these people ever written. He puts the lives of marginal americans, from poor white rural southerners, to expatriates, and black urban displaced men and women, into the dramatic realm that hints of myth. His descriptions are riveting, his sexual honesty can be rude, exposing the reader to the America that exposed him.

Rating:
Summary: A good collection of short stories!
Review: 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".

Rating:
Summary: James Baldwin: The Great African-American Author
Review: James Baldwin is one of the best authors, in my opinion. Everything he wrote scores a 5 star rating with me. His stories are well written, full of compassion and drama. He puts so much of himself in his stories that it's sad to read them. The first time I read a book by James Baldwin I was hooked. If you like books about man's general evilness to his fellowman and the sickness of religios fanatics you'll love James Baldwin.