Go Tell It on the Mountain

Rating:
Summary: A warm and lucid work of genius
Review: The primary action of Baldwin's "Go Tell It on the Mountain" takes place in Harlem in 1935. John Grimes has just turned fourteen and his family expects him to become a preacher like his father Gabriel. However, John realizes that he has reservations about this profession, partially due to a mutual lack of respect and love for his father. After a turbulent scene in which his younger brother Roy (the name is significant, referring to a ghost in Gabriel's past) has been brutally injured in a knife fight, John and his family attend a Saturday night service at the storefront church where his father is a deacon.

The night's passionate prayers evoke flashbacks to the personal histories of the adults in John's family, depicting the events that brought them to Harlem from their respective towns in the South and the development of their attitudes towards religion and love. John's Aunt Florence, Gabriel's older sister, fled from her ailing mother and drunken, disorderly brother and came North to seek better opportunities, only to end up in an unhappy marriage with a man who turned out to be not much different from her brother. Gabriel cleaned up his life after his mother died, became a preacher, and married an older woman who was sympathetic and supportive to him during his troubled times, although he strayed in one fateful instance, for which Florence still harbors resentment towards him. John's mother Elizabeth originally came to Harlem with her boyfriend in a doomed affair, and later she and Gabriel got married after he became a widower.

Although John is the central character, the novel focuses more on the lives of Gabriel, Elizabeth, and Florence, and how their respective backgrounds shaped John's physical upbringing and spiritual development. Generally, it is a statement on religion as an important influence on the American black experience. And it is a brilliant example of style: The structure is unique and effective, the prose is beautifully eloquent in its symbolism and imagery, and the dialogue is sharply realistic and thoughtful.

Rating:
Summary: How could anyone possibly say that?
Review: I am truly apalled at some of the reviews and interpretations of what Baldwin was trying to convey in this book. Honestly, and truthfully, this has to be one of the best books ever written by anyone of any race in any country. I've read Dostoevsky (whom I love), Tolstoy, Dickens, Hughes, Walker and many other writers of different nationalities and talents and Baldwin ranks among the most important writers of this century. One of the things that I think people fail to realize (it took some time for me, too), is the purpose of a book. In my opinion, books are not only meant to entertain (some are, but most important books are not), but to give the person reading the book a perspective of someone else's life and experience, and also to allow the reader the opportunity (the responsibility) to apply or interpret what they've read to some how apply to their own lives. We must be always introspective when we are reading something and think of our lives and society and how and people do the things that they do. Any good book will reflect that and ultimately make some things clearer to us and make us have to think that much more about other things that are not.

Baldwin gives an excellent (I cannot think of another superlative)insight into the lives of these people. Not just their lives, though, but how they think and why they think the things they do, how their thoughts give way to their actions and how their actions give way to the consequences that made (make) their lives what they were. I am inspired by that.

If you are a shallow thinker and only want to be entertained, and can only see that what is only in front of you, then I can imagine you would find Baldwin (or any other) great, thought-provoking writer boring (it almost hurt my hand to type that word in the same sentence as Baldwin). So, we must move ourselves outside our boxes, and see more than just what we know of ourselves.

I'm also sorry to say, O. Wilder, you have it all mixed up, you need to read this story again, to see what it's really saying. I'm not even going to address some of the other ridiculous reviews of this book.

I read this book a long time ago (I was 16) and thought it great, but without quite knowing why. I'm 27 now and I realize it for the great work that it is because of what it made me feel inside.

Rating:
Summary: Baldwin and his genius
Review: First of all, after reading the other reviews I was surprised to find a touch of ignorance in namely peter32574 from Nevada and Drofwarc Mail from Washington. It seems that ole Peter likes to use big words, mainly to seem 'intelligent', implying that Baldwin's writing is not. While Mail likes to assume that the book was terrible. I doubt that Mr. Mail has ever read anything of importance, and if you think that Baldwin is hard to read, pick up some Nietzche and then we'll talk. To the point, Baldwin uses his choice of words in this book ever so effectively. He brings about his own spiritual experience in an interesting light, fusing the racial problem of the time, to the spiritual problem in his soul. It is Baldwins poetical writing that seems to warrant my interest though. His unnforced skill is a testament to his genius, and many seem to agree. All in all, the book is a good one to read for a poets view of a racial and spiritual quest to rise above the transitory stage so often dealt by Wright and Hughes. A great book, and even greater writer.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful
Review: Go Tell it on the Mountain is a wonderful book about self-discovery and familial & religious duty. The characters in this novel are wonderfully full: flawed, but hopeful. I disagree with anyone who feels that an extensive knowledge of the Bible is required to appreciate or enjoy this book.

Rating:
Summary: Go Tell It On The Mountain
Review: "Go Tell It On The Mountain", probably titled after the Negro Spiritual, was James Baldwin's first novel. Published in 1953, it tells the story of a fourteen year old boy, John Grimes. Part One, "The Seventh Day", makes it known how John fights to bring into existence his self-identity while facing many obstacles. Keeping with societal times, one of the obstacles that Baldwin has John face is that of racism. It is the racism that John feels is keeping him from gaining all that society has to offer. In addition to facing obstacles outside of his home, he also is faced with familial problems. John is the son of Elizabeth and stepson of Gabriel. His biological father, Richard, committed suicide due to ridicule by white policemen. After Richard's death, Elizabeth slowly fell in love with Gabriel, a superficial, religious man, and the two of them parented three children. As an outsider of the "family", John must try harder to fight the isolation he's feeling to become a part of the family. Because of Gabriel's beliefs, he felt that John was doomed or cursed and would not accept John for who he was.

"The Prayer of The Saints", Part Two of the novel, tells the stories of Florence, Gabriel, and Elizabeth; people all significant in John's life. Interspersed with stories of their pasts, each of these three are vital to John's development as they pray for his salvation. Florence's prayer centers around the anger she feels being a woman in a family dominated by men as well as the anger associated with racism. Although Florence became a very religious women deep in prayer, initially, she could not find any comfort in religion. Gabriel, a man anointed by God to preach first married Deborah, a young woman who was barren, was overtaken by the flesh while talking to a co-worker, Esther. Although he felt guilty and tried to repent for his sin, the conceived child died. After becoming a widower, Gabriel married Elizabeth and promised to provide a good family atmosphere for her and John. As time went by, Gabriel fell short of his promise, and although he and John attempted to work through their differences, they were both overcome by feelings of unworthiness. Although, long Part Two is well written and creative in the sense that the other saints are mentioned in someone else's prayer.

Part Three, "The Threshing Room Floor" tells us how John receives the Holy Ghost, something he has been searching for, and is found in the middle of the "threshing" floor surrounded by saints. The reader is left wonder if, now saved, will John be accepted by Gabriel. Also, Baldwin used an excellent play on words by naming the church "Temple of Fire Baptized" because it is water or the blood of the lamb that baptizes and saves people from sin, not the fires often seen in hell.

Although the book well-written, it was at times difficult to focus. This book is recommended to an avid reader, but not to one who is looking for "a first novel to read". However, I believe that "Go Tell It On The Mountain" is a good book for someone to read if they are fighting with salvation and looking for acceptance in church.

Rating:
Summary: Terribly Confusing!
Review: Go Tell it on the Mountain was a powerful book, but it was extremely confusing with the different characters and setting. Its switching from past and future tense did not flow and the characters all got twisted together. There is no way to read the book only one time through and understand it all. New characters popped out of no where and left me completely confused about who was who. Maybe this book just was not right for me, but I really would not recommend this to anyone who has a cheerful personality. The reader has to enjoy thinking about and pondering ideas in a book and be okay with reading depressing books. Be prepared to read this book several times through to fully comprehend the true meaning and plot of this book. Overall, I was disappointed with this book because I had heard very good things about this book, but I found it too confusing to really enjoy.

Rating:
Summary: Great start but does not sustain
Review: Begins as a bildungsroman, and a fine one with beautiful writing. I become less interested when the point of view shifts. An interesting bridge between the Modernist tradition and the African-American style of story-telling (montage of multi-generational, tangentally-related voices and plots) that Morrison embodies. The spiritual crisis that is so important to Baldwin does not capture me.

Rating:
Summary: A strong an poignant tour of the human condition
Review: First I want to say. I really don't understand how anyone with enough intelligence to load this site and write a review (and it doesn't take much) could speak so critically about such a powerful book. I can't even dismiss two of the reviews as complaints of illiterate teenagers. How can anyone ignore the universal theme of the book, the human condition. The entrapment of an individual inside personal, ethnic, religious, racial, and/or ancestral bonds. As for the "boringness" of the book, it seems to me that any one could appreciate this book, it is jsut as captivating as any thriller. John's struggle with his own identity as a person, a "saint", and African-American, is captivating. Yes we all go through the same type of self-discovery, but no one captures, in such eloquent wording, the angst of such a revelation. In response to the critique of Baldwin's writing style. I can see how some people might not be able to have patience for his elongated sentences, and biblical references. And if you are too frustrated to make it through the entire book, I think I might understand...but please don't downgrade what you have read. Baldwin's work is likely the "Pit and the Pendulum" of the 20th Century.

I would aslo like to say to the highschool students who read this book, that if I can appreciate it (and I am sixteen) I think you can too.

Rating:
Summary: Unintelligent and overated.
Review: Baldwin's prose is average; and, at the time, the issues dealt with here weren't at all banal, but Baldwin tackles them far to brashly. He offers a panoply of problems, but rarely offers a solution that's tantamount to his psuedo-genius. The protagonist simply goes into fits of self-loathing and predictable "White man oppresive, Black oppressed, so let's sink down to their level." But I just can't get over the prose. It's not terrible, just unecessarily overated. I guess it was pretty iconoclastic for it's time.

Rating:
Summary: Who Should Read This Book
Review: Looking over the reviews, I was surprised at how often reviewers said this books was tedious to them. I found it one of the strongest and most powerful books I have read it a long time, with language that was exalted, and often hymn-like in its quality.

Concerning the book, then, I would like to suggest a couple of things to readers and to those who suggest books for others to read:

1)Don't read this book unless you know your Bible well, particularly the King James version. Without this as your base, I would guess that you'd find the language incredibly dense, and most of Baldwin's allusive power will blow past you.

2)Don't read this book unless you have some experience in life. Again, I would think that the way Baldwin is able to put deep inner struggles and the feelings that rise from hard experience into words will remain lost to you unless you've had some hard experience of your own.

3) If you're not African American, a little pre-reading into the Black experience in America might be helpful first, looking into particularly the Great Migration, the Azusa street revival, and the rise of the storefront church.

4) Practice reading the book out loud!! Many passages were written in an almost oral form, the kind one hears in preaching, with rolling sentences that seem to go on forever. Don't let the long sentences intimidate. Rather let them sweep you along, phrase for phrase, as they're meant to.