Going to Meet the Man

by James Baldwin

Overview

A major collection of short stories by one of America’s most important writers—informed by the knowledge the wounds racism leaves in both its victims and its perpetrators. • “If Van Gogh was our 19th-century artist-saint, James Baldwin is our 20th-century one.” —Michael Ondaatje, Booker Prize-winner of The English Patient

In this modern classic, "there's no way not to suffer. But you try all kinds of ways to keep from drowning in it." The men and women in these eight short fictions grasp this truth on an elemental level, and their stories detail the ingenious and often desperate ways in which they try to keep their head above water.

It may be the heroin that a down-and-out jazz pianist uses to face the terror of pouring his life into an inanimate instrument. It may be the brittle piety of a father who can never forgive his son for his illegitimacy. Or it may be the screen of bigotry that a redneck deputy has raised to blunt the awful childhood memory of the day his parents took him to watch a black man being murdered by a gleeful mob.

By turns haunting, heartbreaking, and horrifying, Going to Meet the Man is a major work by one of our most important writers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780679761792
Publisher:	Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/25/1995
Series:	Vintage International
Edition description:	Reissue
Pages:	256
Sales rank:	115,033
Product dimensions:	5.20(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.50(d)
Lexile:	870L (what's this?)

About the Author

James Baldwin (1924–1987) was a novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, appeared in 1953 to excellent reviews, and his essay collections Notes of a Native Son and The Fire Next Time were bestsellers that made him an influential figure in the growing civil rights movement. Baldwin spent much of his life in France, where he moved to escape the racism and homophobia of the United States. He died in France in 1987, a year after being made a Commander of the French Legion of Honor.

Date of Birth:

August 2, 1924

Date of Death:

December 1, 1987

Place of Birth:

New York, New York

Place of Death:

St. Paul de Vence, France

Education:

DeWitt Clinton High School, New York City

Table of Contents

The Rockpile

The Outing

The Man Child

Previous Condition

Sonny's Blues

This Morning, This Evening, So Soon

Come Out the Wilderness

Going to Meet the Man

Editorial Reviews

"He is thought-provoking, tantalizing, irritating, abusing and amusing. And he uses words as the sea uses waves." —Langston Hughes

“If Van Gogh was our 19th-century artist-saint, James Baldwin is our 20th-century one.”  —Michael Ondaatje

“This author retains a place in an extremely select group; that composed of the few genuinely indispensable American writers.”  —Saturday Review

From the Publisher

As might be expected for this collection of short stories, Dion Graham's reading requires him to master an array of voices: hellfire-preaching ministers, deliciously profane Harlem locals, to kittenish women. Graham ranges from tremulous exertion to sudden flashes of rage, his reading flecked by an exhaustion that creeps in at the margins of Baldwin's prose. Baldwin's protagonists are weary of a world that allows them no respite from racism and hatred, and Graham echoes that weariness, his voice hushed and low, its register reflecting their struggle to survive. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

Available for the first time on audio, Baldwin's 1965 short story collection is timeless in its treatment of youthful innocence, prejudice, addiction, loneliness, fear, and human suffering. "Rockpile" and "The Outing" will seem familiar to those acquainted with his first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain; the third story, "Man Child," features a very chilling ending that will catch them off guard. The four subsequent tales—"Previous Condition," "Sonny's Blues," "This Morning, This Evening, So Soon," and "Come Out the Wilderness"—return listeners to a more familiar world with elements of frustration, anger, loneliness, and the desire for love. But the most resonant story by far is the final, titular one, which contains graphic descriptions of a lynching and is a catalyst for strong emotions. Actor/Audie Award winner Dion Graham (see Behind the Mike, LJ 11/1/09) is masterly in his rending of the vast array of characters in these eight disparate tales. Highly recommended for all audiences.—Valerie Piechocki, Prince George's Cty. Memorial Lib., Largo, MD

Library Journal

The world is much changed since 1965, when this collection first appeared, with its focus on marginalized people. Each story tells about someone black, gay, or female, who is sometimes dealing with an oppressive family but always looking for a way out of an untenable situation. Many of those situations don't occur in quite the same ways now, but narrator Dion Graham makes them timely and universally human. In Baldwin's masterpiece, the short story “Sonny's Blues,” one can hear in the two brothers’ voices the differences in their age, education, and experience as well as the similarities of family—a combination that helps to forge a heartbreaking performance. Most of the other stories show their age, but Graham’s reading pulls the listener back to a time when they were fresh, raw wounds. D.M.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award, 2012 Audies Finalist © AudioFile 2011, Portland, Maine

MAY 2011 - AudioFile