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4.5
This book does not have one plot per se, as it is a collection of short stories. However, there is a through-line in that all the narratives have to do with the same thing. Mr. Baldwin's stories all relate, directly or indirectly, to the lived experiences of Blacks living in New York City during the 1950's and 60's. Each builds and expands on the themes of the previous story as the reader goes along. To say that the stories are about racism is a gross oversimplification. In many ways they are allegories about American ideals gone awry in the face of a system that ultimately diminishes all its citizens by devaluing the humanity of the race of some of it citizens. The stories include: The Rockpile, The Outing, The Man Child, Previous Condition, Sonny's Blues, This Morning, This Evening, So Soon, Come Out the Wilderness, and Going to meet the Man.The first stories, The Rockpile and the Outing, speak of faith and family, incorporated elements of African American identity playing out against the backdrop of mid-century Harlem. A young boy learns resentment at the feet of a step-father and the early seeds of manhood on the shoulder of a close friend. The White characters that inhabit Man Child speak of an underlying bitterness and resentment that fuel grotesque acts. This story strikes this reader as being an allegory about mainstream America in the midst of war, pilfering the lives of her sons, overseas and at home, over battles of entitlement. Previous Condition chronicles the life of the young creative intellectual struggling for identity in a society of well-meaning While liberalism and Black misapprehension. Sonny's Blues plays the mournful song of hopelessness and helplessness of a young Black man, accompanied by the sorrowful strains of his struggle with addiction in the Harlem mid-century jazz scene. This Morning, This evening, So soon, powerfully presents the slow, impotent rage of a Black father who must sacrifice the innocence of his son at the altar of racism. Come Out the Wilderness' protagonist struggles with self-worth and identity. Going to Meet the Man, subversively portrays a man trapped by the guilt of a southern tradition, taking his family out for a picnic.Fifty years hence, in the location and settings of these stories, America has changed. The author James Baldwin, who died in 1987, did not live to see the ascent of Colin Powell, Robert L. Johnson, Condoleezza Rice or Barack Obama; evidence that almost certainly things have changed for the better, for many of us. But in many ways it remains distressingly and disturbingly the same. A system that villifies the Black poor for their poverty, and personifies young Black males as violent criminals, continues to perpetuate the kind of psychic pain and anger that permeated much of Baldwin's work. Going to Meet the Man should be required reading, if for no other reason than to remind us of what we must continually strive to change.
