Colm Tóibķns personal account of encountering James Baldwins work, published in Baldwins centenary year. Acclaimed Irish novelist Colm Tóibķn first read James Baldwin just after turning eighteen. He had completed his first year at an Irish university and was struggling to free himself from a religious upbringing. He had even considered entering a seminary and was searching for literature that would offer illumination and insight. Inspired by the novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, Tóibķn found a writer who would be a lifelong companion and exemplar.
From On James Baldwin
Baldwin was interested in the hidden and dramatic areas in his own being, and was prepared as a writer to explore difficult truths about his own private life. In his fiction, he had to battle for the right of his protagonists to choose or influence their destinies. He knew about guilt and rage and bitter privacies in a way that few of his White novelist contemporaries did. And this was not simply because he was Black and homosexual; the difference arose from the very nature of his talent, from the texture of his sensibility. All art, he wrote, is a kind of confession, more or less oblique. All artists, if they are to survive, are forced, at last, to tell the whole story, to vomit the anguish up.
On James Baldwin is a magnificent contemporary authors tribute to one of his most consequential literary progenitors.
Recenzijos
A thoughtful, partly autobiographical reflection on Baldwins fiction . . . emphasiz(ing) Baldwins place on the worlds literary stage. * Wall Street Journal * A concise and pungent work of literary criticism. Tóibķn may be Baldwins ideal interlocutor for a new generation of readers puzzled by the earlier writers mental gymnastics with race, history, and sexuality. * Times Literary Supplement * These astute essays are doubly rewarding, shedding light on Baldwins profound visions of freedom while offering insight into how Tóibķn reads and thinks about fiction. The result is a testament to the talents of both writers. * Publishers Weekly * The writing is lucid, concise, unpretentious, emotionally engaging and, in some instances, deeply personal. (A) brilliant book. * Sunday Independent * The great achievement of On James Baldwin is the same as what Baldwin hoped for himself: to write about the human condition without confinement to race, religion, and sexual orientation. * New York Sun * Tóibķn delivers an intimate reading of the American writers work in this astute, accessible book. The personal and political resonance of Baldwins work is explored sensitively by the author, who shares with his subject a glittering mind with thought embodied in style. * Irish Times * As if Tóibķns insights about Baldwin were not enough to make this short collection a keeper, we also get Tóibķn riffing on his own experiences as a young gay man. Tóibķn (has) the breadth of vision to see Baldwins life and work from many angles. * The Gay and Lesbian Review * "A freewheeling, erudite account of James Baldwin. . . I would highly recommend it as a primer to anyone interested in Baldwin and wanting to know more about his trajectory." * Something Curated *
The Pitch of Passion
Crying Holy
Paris, Harlem
The Private Life
The Terror and the Surrender
Acknowledgments
Selected Bibliography
Permissions
Colm Tóibķn is a renowned Irish novelist, poet, essayist, journalist, playwright, professor, and literary critic. He is the author of ten novels, including Long Island; The Magician, winner of the Rathbones Folio Prize; The Master, winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize; Brooklyn, winner of the Costa Book Award and adapted for the BAFTA award-winning film of the same name; The Testament of Mary; and Nora Webster; as well as two story collections, several books of criticism, and a collection of poems, Vinegar Hill. He is the Irene and Sidney B. Silverman Professor of the Humanities at Columbia University and has been named the 20222024 Laureate for Irish Fiction by the Arts Council of Ireland. Three times shortlisted for the Booker Prize, Tóibķn lives in Dublin and New York City.
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