Snag Another Country Articulated By James Baldwin Conveyed As Interactive EBook

messy, meandering, wildly uneven novel that is still somehow elevated to near epic greatness by the brilliance and beauty of James Baldwin's prose.
I swear Baldwin could write a Craigslist ad for plumbing services and still move me to tears!

Set primarily in Harlem and Greenwich Village during the late's, this tells the intersecting stories of a small group of artistic friends in their's and's, and their various sexual and romantic exploits focusing mainly on relationships that were "forbidden" by the social norms of the time interracial, homosexual, extramarital, bisexual, etc.
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Shockingly explicit and refreshingly progressive for the time it came out, the novel explores the pleasures, fears, insecurities, doubts, delusions, betrayals, and social obstacles that so often accompany any struggle for real, honest, authentic love.


I didn't care much about most of the characters, and even found a couple of them to be almost insufferable cough Vivaldo cough.
The dialogue is a bit corny and dated, and some of the plot developments seem straight out of a daytime soap opera.
But all of this is EASILY overlooked and forgiven thanks to the eloquence, ferocity, and almost unbearable honesty of Baldwin's narrative voice.
He somehow manages to turn the pulp into poetry, and seduced me into sticking around for a very bumpy but unforgettable ride!

Having recently read "The Fire Next Time" and watched the extraordinary documentary "I Am Not Your Negro" highly recommend it, by the way, I was fully expecting the scathing critiques of White America's delusions and hypocrisy when it comes to issues of race, just as relevant and powerful inas they were when this novel was first published.


And having read "Giovanni's Room" my freshman year of college, right around the time I was starting to poke my own head out of the closet, I already knew Baldwin was decades ahead of his time in his depictions of gay and bisexual men struggling to live happy, authentic lives unburdened by selfhatred and shame.


Now it's been overyears since I read that remarkable novel, so my memory's a bit foggy, but it seems to me that in the character of Eric here in this later novel, Baldwin has progressed even further in presenting a bold, cautiously optimistic vision of what honest and unapologetic gay selfacceptance might look like in the midth century.
 

What struck me most about Baldwin's writing THIS TIME, however, is the expansive empathy and unflinching clarity with which he examines human intimacy and relationships, regardless of race, sexuality, gender, or class.
He had such a rare gift for illuminating those dark and dreaded distances between the Said and the Unsaid, between the lives and lies we present to our families, friends, lovers, etc.
, and the sometimes terrifying truths so often buried deep beneath the social niceties and norms, Its the late fifties in New York and Another Country begins following the ineffaceable Rufus Scott.
Hes a jazz musician whose luck seems to have run out, From there the story of Another Country unfolds in three parts to uncover artists on their journey to survive life among racial unrest, misguided friendships, vacillating sexuality, societal pressures, and all while discovering a myriad of unlikable, flawed characters.


Another Country is a slow burn of a story that will suck you in and keep you hooked.
Its not a story of plot, It is a novel which is purely character development, Each character is introduced in juxtaposition with another character to stress their faults, . . Click this link for the rest, sitelink wordpress. com I am appalled that it took me so long to read Baldwin, but I am gradually correcting my outrageous neglect of this important author.
He was a tremendously skillful writer, This characterdriven book is about a group of authors, musicians, actors and a few others who come together in New York City.
They are male, female, black, white, heterosexual and bisexual, They love, hurt, attract, challenge and repel each other in various combinations, They also struggle with issues surrounding their careers, families, race and sexuality,

There is a staccato rhythm to this book, Although it is not plotdriven, the book moves along very quickly, Baldwin was a master observer, It felt like he had spent hours watching people both alone and interacting in bars, funerals, apartments and on the street.
He eavesdropped on conversations and looked through windows, There is clarity in both his observations and his precise use of language, The book ended abruptly and I really wanted to know what happened next to these people.


The narration by Dion Graham of the audiobook was excellent, He even sings well. I don't even know where to begin with Another Country, .

This book showed me myself in ways I had never imagined a book could.
I mean talk about intense, raw, truth, hurt, love, booze, swinging, and every other action that connects all human beings.
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I amyears old, and to think that Decemberth if this year will mark theth Anniversary of this book is mindblowing to me.


I first have to start with Rufus Scott, I have never had a character in fiction who was complex, and damaged that I could FEEL like this young man.
. The funeral scene where the pastor is eulogizing Rufus is by far one of my most powerful moment's in reading I have had.
. . I being a african American truly have been to funerals like this my life,

Now with the other person who I truly connected with was Eric, I found Eric to vulnerable, real, human, . . One of my most favorite quotes comes from Eric talking about his relationship with Yves, and how being homosexual in an era where that it was not accepted, and with that has the background he goes on talking about because of his desires, he found himself living a 'secret life' where he goes on to say to me one of the most profound life mantras.
. . " The trouble with a secret life, is that it is frequently a secret from the person who lives it, and NEVER from people the person encounter.
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Love, Love, Love this Book, .

Thank You, Mr, Baldwin! This is an extraordinarily raw, perceptive, sorrowful, blazingly alive exploration of the unknown and mysterious territories of the human heart.


Its astonishing to me to read a book thatyears after its publication is as unapologetically queer and complex in its depiction of interracial relationships as anything being written today.


To say that James Baldwin was a profoundly wise and visionary thinker is an understatement.


Im very moved and troubled and stirred to my soul after having read this incredible novel.
All for the first time, in the days when acts had no consequences and nothing was irrevocable, and love was simple and even pain had the dignity of enduring forever.
It was unimaginable that time could do anything to diminish it,

But it was only love which could accomplish the miracle of making a life bearable only love, and love itself mostly failed.


This is not a love story,

It was fitting that I read Another Country while camped out under the air conditioner or sweltering in the park or seeking solace by the ocean.
The characters, too, were always seeking refuge, always trying to find some relief as they drank cheap whiskey, their skin stuck to the furniture, their foreheads damp, their worlds colliding and falling.
The characters are tangled up with each other, muddled, twofaced, broken, angry, and pitiful, Baldwin created such an intense and suffocating piece, I needed a shower after each read, I needed

a drink.

Baldwin, who fled to a more liberated France while writing this book, explores another side of his home country and hometown.
Its deep summer in NYC in thes, Theres jazz, filth, liquor, art, The city the country is experiencing an undercurrent of racial tension, But not you. Youre so cool and forward thinking, right Your circle of friends includes whites and blacks, see

But what if youre struggling with your sexuality as well as your race And what if you add class distinction to the list And denial, guilt, fear What if theres infidelity, death, domestic violence

What if everybody is so damn lonely they turn to each other Turn on each other

What if there was no such thing as “gay” or “straight”

What if you think youre just so free and so bohemian in your middleclass apartment with your two kids and your husbands fat paycheck and then it all comes crashing down

What if you never realize who youre in love with until its too late

This book got under my skin.
It penetrated my moods. It stifled me. Its so bogged down in sorrow and anger and it never lets up for a moment.
Never releases its nooselike grip on you, And I loved every uncomfortable and unbearable moment of it,

Best book I've read all year, I wanted to love this book so much more than I did, I deeply admire Baldwin's bravery in tackling the subjects of systemic racism and socially forbidden love, and some of the sentences took my breath away with their beautiful construction.
Even so, the book is veined with a deepseated misogyny, Women here are either weak or "bitches," and either way they seem to want to be slapped around.
Ugh. The characters in general feel thin to me, like figures created to drive a plot and propose theories of the world rather than real people taking real action driven by their desire and individual personality.
Each seems to speak with the same voice, The shifting point of view didn't help, and at the end, I had no idea whose story this was or what I was supposed to take from it except that love is inflammatory and destructive, a theory I'm not quite willing to buy.
In this novel, Baldwin is at his best when writing about the love between men, There is real beauty here, but in the end, for me at least, the novel's beauty wasn't enough to overcome its woman hating.
I love Baldwins writing, his beautiful prose that punches me in the gut without fail, This book might be his most sophisticated, from a narrative structure point of view, but jeez, it was also his heaviest, as far as I am concerned.
“Another Country weaves together the story of a small group of friends living in New York in thes, Rufus, Vivaldo, Cass, Ida and Eric.
Loss brings them closer together, but also pulls them apart, both literally and metaphorically,

Baldwin did something remarkable with this book: it is so far ahead of its time in terms of analysis of race relations and the way racial identity can never be removed from the conversation in America.
It is also extremely frank about sex, the confusion that sometimes veils sexual orientation, and loves place in that discourse.
The extremely introspective, warts and all narrative, can be painful to read, but the characters confusion, anger and pain are so vivid that it is difficult to judge them.
If anything, the sharpness with which he captured their inner struggle made me feel even more compassion for them, for their attempts at finding a tiny moment of happiness, dignity and capacity to survive in the cruel and messy world they live in.
The pain every character in this book feels comes from a deep feeling of alienation, a feeling brought on by the judgement they see in other peoples eyes and their rage and being perceived as something so different from what they are.
They push back, try to claim their identity more truthfully, but society pushes back harder

The humanity Baldwin saw was not always pretty to look at, but he never averted his eye, and his writing reminds us of the flaws we all struggle with.
This bleak books ends of a note of hope, a hope based in honesty and forgiveness.
If you like Baldwins work, this is a dark but impressive example of his talent and his gift for seeing people as they really are.
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