Review: Notes of a Native Son

The collected ""pieces"" of the author of Go Tell It on the Mountain form a compelling unit as he applies the high drama of poetry and sociology to a penetrating analysis of the Negro experience on the American and European scene. He bares the brutal boners of ""everybody's protest novel"" from Stowe to Wright; points out that black is ""devil-color"" according to Christian theology and to ""make white"" is thus to save; reveals the positive base of Carmen Jones, movie version, as Negroes are white, that is, moral. Beyond such artistic attitudinal displays lie experimental realities: the Harlem Ghetto with its Negro press, the positive element of which tries to emulate the white press and provides an incongruous mixture of slick style and stark subject; the Ghetto with its churches and its hatred of the American reality behind the Jewish face (from which, as sufferers, so much was expected). There is a trip to Atlanta for the Wallace campaign and indignities endured; there is a beautiful essay, from which the book takes its title- of father and son and the corroding power of hate as it could grow from injustice. In Europe, there is the encounter of African and American Negro; a sojourn in jail over a stolen sheet; and last, the poignant essay of the first Negro to come to a remote Swiss village, to be greeted as a living wonder. This is not true in America, where he has a place, though equivocal, in our united life. The expression of so many insights enriches rather than clarifies, and behind every page stalks a man, an everyman, seeking his identity...and ours. Exceptional writing.??

This book is extremely well writen. It desplays his life in a way that makes it real to you and not only him.

Review: Notes of a Native Son

This author is a genius with words and the pictures painted by them. He tells what it is like to be black in a white America in the 50s and 60s. I hope things have gotten better but being white, I am probably not the one to ask. Read full review

Review: Notes of a Native Son

My take on the first part of the book was that the author was just full of criticism,but not offering any suggestions as to how such misconceptions can be avoided in the future. Even though I have ... Read full review

Review: Notes of a Native Son

Notes of a Native Son by James Baldwin is an interesting look into what it was like living in Harlem in the fifties, traveling through Europe and experiencing a variety of different media, all from ... Read full review

Review: Notes of a Native Son

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Review: Notes of a Native Son

James Baldwin on visiting his dying father in the hospital: "The moment I saw him I knew why I had put off this visit so long. I had told my mother that I did not want to see him because I hated him ... Read full review

Review: Notes of a Native Son

I just finished James Baldwin's "Notes of a Native Son" yesterday. Published in 1955, it has lost none of its relevance on many levels, and one of these is his argument that the representations of ... Read full review

Review: Notes of a Native Son

Exceptional set of essays. Makes you want to meet James Baldwin and listen to him tell stories. Loved this! Read full review

Review: Notes of a Native Son

Note: I read this immediately before beginning The Cross of Redemption, a book of Baldwin's uncollected writings, so any comments I have on this book will necessarily be made in comparison to the ... Read full review