- ISBN13: 9780307275936
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
Product Description
In this honest and stunning novel, James Baldwin has given America a moving story of love in the face of injustice. Told through the eyes of Tish, a nineteen-year-old girl, in love with Fonny, a young sculptor who is the father of her child, Baldwin’s story mixes the sweet and the sad. Tish and Fonny have pledged to get married, but Fonny is falsely accused of a terrible crime and imprisoned. Their families set out to clear his name, and as they face an uncertain future, the young lovers experience a kaleidoscope of emotions–affection, despair, and hope. In a love story that evokes the blues, where passion and sadness are inevitably intertwined, Baldwin has created two characters so alive and profoundly realized that they are unforgettably ingrained in the American psyche.
The very first thing one will notice when reading this book is that it starts to lose its tone of a 19 year old black woman complete with emotions and reverts to that of a certain famous black male author, i.e. James Baldwin loses his voice. For the most part it’s due to the lack of humor which would deter someone in their teenage years or younger from reading this book. However, we cannot overlook the fact that the subject matter also plays a role. How many 14 to 17 year olds do you know are pregnant and their boyfriends are in jail? To most people this tells them that relating to the book will be impossible. Baldwin does some of his own self-destructiveness on pages 18-19 when Tish explains that Fonny, “` [will] always love [his] Daddy because he didn’t leave [him.]‘ I’ll always remember Fonny’s face when he talked about his Daddy.” Thus, by being overly sentimental in this passage a young reader will then be more likely to put the book down because the nature of a teen’s emotions are that of instability and that most definitely shows a strong sense of emotion which cannot be easily retained by teenagers.
As always when reading a book all of us like a good laugh once and awhile. Yet it is quite hard to find such a thing as humor in the pages of If Beale Street Could Talk. Not surprising given the nature and subject matter that is contained within, however, when writing and wishing to appeal to all audiences to thereby increase the amount of money you make humor is something that everyone will enjoy. Simpler put, this book is so life like and humanistically intense by nature it serves as a depressant thus, we aren’t laughing when reading it, which means most teenagers will not be interested in something that won’t amuse them because for teens amusement holds our attention for the most part. For instance would you find anything amusing about the passage on page 17 through 18, “Yeah. But not like you and me. I used to hear them . . . She still belonged to Jesus and he went off down the street, to the shop.” Although that passage may be amusing it doesn’t further the claim Baldwin is making in the book nor does it connect in any way to the time space continuum of the plot, because all he is doing is trying to appeal to religious humor which is for an older audience and dangerous in itself.
What is also lacking about this book, and will ultimately detract from Baldwin’s reader pool, is that of consistent and chronologically ordered plot. Think about it, if you as a reader are constantly being confused by the constant flashbacks that a character is making, won’t they not seem to be connective to the central idea of the book? Look at pages 19 to 28 where Baldwin sets Tish rambling for 9 pages about her first experience with Fonny outside of school yet it was in a “Sanctified” church. Now please if you can really see how at the end of all this the only relation that Baldwin can makes is that, “. . . when I first had to go see him in the Tombs, and walked up those steps and into those halls, it was just like walking into church.” To those of us with half a brain this says two things. A) Baldwin wanted to tell us that Tish was scared of the Tombs when she first saw it but not now. And B) he doesn’t know how to write in a time-ordered fashion without making multiple flashbacks in a single section of the book. If an author has to do that then they obviously didn’t complete or even start the planning process properly, which to most critics would say that Baldwin isn’t a very successful novelist.
However, if you try to look past all this and do get past page 50 you may find some things worth reading. To those of you who enjoy a tearjerker once and awhile then this shouldn’t be a problem for you. How many books encompass such an important matter as making the right decisions at a young age and love? This is evident on pages 44 to 46, “I listened to the music and the sounds from the streets . . . It’s a miracle to know that somebody loves you.” If that does not evoke the kind of emotion and ethos that Baldwin wanted to use in order to gain an audience he wouldn’t have written the rest of the book like that.
However, none of this really matters in the big scheme of things to teenagers. Most of them do not care whether or not a book can make them cry and if it does that is just too much for them because they are not at the level where they can deal with and talk about such topics that this book portrays. Therefore, this aspect of relapse by Baldwin serves to denote his credibility as an established novelist due to the process, form, and style in which he authors his books. Furthermore, if there are black women who are pregnant and under the age of 20 then an even lesser percentage of those women will have boyfriends that are A) in jail and B) actually fathered that child. Point C) is as follows: if A) is predominantly true than probability that these women are uneducated is greatly increased, and thus these women are much less likely to have access to a book that not only portrays them inaccurately but loses that tone after the first 30 pages. Upon review all of this it is clearly evident that James Baldwin made a few mistakes when writing this book, predominantly those of not reviewing who will read his book the most, i.e. those who he is writing from the perspective of, pregnant African-American females who’s boyfriends are in jail.
Rating: 1 / 5
I have not yet formulated an appropriate review however my intial thoughts on reading this book are as follows. Whoever does make that unfortunate decision to read this book will be greatly dissatisfied. Consider yourself lucky if you can read past the first 48 pages without being able to predict the book, or get fed up with its use of constant bathos and sentimentality. A formal review will be forthcoming in the next two weeks or so.
Rating: 1 / 5
James Baldwin is an premiere 20th century writer of literature at the highest level. The fact that he chose a theme which was very important at the time of his writing is admirable. Many people wish that he had not written his book, but many other of us are delighted that he did write it. Once your story is put to print no one can deny the existance of your being.
It was very unusual for people of his time to take on the burden of writing about the embrassing topic of race discrimination. Thanks Baldwin for laying the way for the Civil Rights Movement which ostensible started in the 1960’s. I hightly recommend this book .
Rating: 4 / 5
“If Beale street could talk” this title kind of throws the story off but, the story within itself is interesting and full of intese emotion.
Rating: 3 / 5
Even though I read this book, If Beale Street Could Talk, a while ago I thought that it was very boring. I mean maybe that’s just my opinion or maybe even the opinion of a 16-year old girl but this book never seemed to end. I only read it since my aunt wanted me to. And now I have to read it again for school and I am dreading it a lot.
Rating: 1 / 5