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Vendor Writing: From the Bookshelf
From the Bookshelf
JEN A. RECOMMENDS:
Go Tell it on the Mountain
By James Baldwin
-- Phillis Wheatley - 1773
Named one of the 100 best English language novels of the 20th century by Time magazine in 2005, James Baldwin's, Go Tell it on the Mountain , is a true American classic. His first novel, published in 1953, it is one of the very best examples of Baldwin's narrative skills. Considering where he came from and the limited educational opportunities available to him, it can only be imagined that he was a natural-born writer. He had a gift that was recognized early on by one of his teachers who encouraged his passion for story and the written word. Baldwin mesmerizes in this semi-autobiographical tale of life growing up in 1930s Harlem. Though all of the characters he draws are desperately poor, they are all working at the limited number of jobs they are, as Black Americans, allowed to perform. We are introduced to mother, Elizabeth, a single mother left alone to raise her son, John, as best she can. She meets and marries an older, strictly-religious, storefront-preacher, Gabriel, who left the South as a refugee during the time of the great migration. Baldwin's words ring with a truth not found in other histories of that time. Baldwin often said that though he was raised in the North, he felt Southern by experience while coming of age. He rebelled against the racism he experienced but wrote of the hope that some day there would be a moral awakening to finally and forever give all Americans equal value regardless of color. Baldwin, at times, writes with a burning rage, but it's his loving heart that gives this saga of a Black boy's struggle to come to terms with his life and times powerful wings.
