James Baldwin - Going to Meet the Man BOOK REVIEW

[@alvaroelias4929]

Another example of why I adore Baldwin so much. He’s one of the most emotionally articulate writers I’ve ever read. Great review, sir.

[@IamDangoFAN]

Highly recommend "If Beale Street Could Talk". So tender and so so beautiful, short as well. "The Fire Next Time" is another great read, when it comes to his essays.

[@JourneyStudiosisawesome]

Absolutely loved Beale Street. Baldwin was excellent in creating characters that readers could empathize with without having the same or even similar experiences.

[@IamDangoFAN]

@@JourneyStudiosisawesome Yes. And adding to his ability to empathize and project this empathy towards the readers, I think his ability to inhabit his characters is just wonderful. I remember the first time I read Beale Street, and in the first few paragraphs I am already destroyed, when Tish went to prison to visit Fonny, and her line “I hope that nobody has ever had to look at anybody they love through glass”. It's just so true to her character, the way she said her lines in her head. Baldwin is so good at that

[@maristiller4033]

I adore James Baldwin so much! He's one of my favorite writers and one of my biggest inspirations. So glad you're talking about him!

[@TheLightofAniu]

Definitely an excellent writer: “Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone”, “If Beale Street Could Talk”, “Notes of a Native Son”, and “Giovanni’s Room” are all excellent. Highly recommend them all.

[@kitjohnson2767]

Fire Next Time is an amazing essay.

[@kanelowrey4089]

Who else thinks Clifford is the man? ⬆️

[@chase36chase]

hes the best.

[@AmandaS18]

He definitely is😊

[@MrUndersolo]

Yes, and we are all going to meet him. Sorry, terrible joke...

[@rudolphbloom]

GIovanni's Room is also absolutely amazing.

[@CoolDudesUnited]

Going to Meet the Man is truly a masterwork of short fiction. I read it a couple weeks ago and haven't been able to stop thinking about it. The communal aspect of the lynching is surreal. It's almost like a giant picnic, but with torture and murder instead of sandwiches. The atmosphere of that scene is drenched in a strange kind of terrifying nostalgia. Kind of shows how deep racism goes; it's literally ingrained in the sheriff's happiest childhood memories. Incredible story. Thanks for covering it Cliff.

[@chipesque]

Matt Fitch that’s where picnics come from.

[@carolinanoriega3813]

@@chipesque 😥💔

[@bjwnashe5589]

Great review, Cliff. Really good job. Nice to see you get to Baldwin. Your comments on his fearlessness are spot on. Baldwin might be the most courageous, honest writer we've ever had in America.

[@FlintSL]

Read Another Country last year, thought it was top notch. Another great review, lad

[@TSmith-yy3cc]

I don't watch any book reviews aside from yours. I really enjoy that you can convey a lot of the themes and nuances of a story without coming across as facetious and smug as well as not being overly verbose.

[@vaseemsherief9280]

Could you please review Invisible Man by Ralph Ellison?????

[@fernyhough100]

I got 10 minutes through this and realised this needed to be read. I purchased it and have just finished the first story. It's enthralling. Still an incredibly important writer and his work seems almost to be more important now. Thanks Cliff.

[@PVilla27]

If I could recommend something: Carloz Ruiz Zafón is one of the most popular Spanish writers of all time (second only to Cervantes) and he passed away two days ago. He wrote my favourite novel of all time: The Shadow of The Wind. I have no words to describe how amazing his works are, this one specially. You will love it. It's a promise.

[@AndreSantos-ew2ds]

Have you read any of the brazilian writer Guimarães Rosa's books?

[@ЦветанГанчев-у4п]

First, sorry for my bad english... I love how you articulate yourself, you are one of the few critics or man that can really make me read a book. I love reading, but rarely somebody can assure me to read something, while with the way you talk about literature, in the first five minutes of your reviews I can see if I will read the book or not!

[@geishasas1190]

Reminds me somewhat of The Lottery another great short story. And when are you planning to review Shirley Jackson? Any book almost any story?

[@eliasE989]

Great commentary. I've only read Go Tell it on the Mountain and it is a very powerful novel. I'm definitely reading more from Baldwin.

[@fuzzydunlop4513]

Dude your description of that eponymous story blew my mind. I read the fire next time a year ago, and was moved to tears. I had only read philosophy up to that point and was tired of it. at that moment I knew the power of prose, so good

[@rodrigoaragao5657]

Sonny's Blues is amazing. That ending with cathartic explosions through musical expression is just so fucking emotional and deep

[@MeChoonChannel]

Excellent review, as always. You're one of the only people on KZbin that seems to have similar reading interests to me. I've read so many books that you've recommended. I feel like reading isn't a male hobby as much as it should be anymore. I appreciate your work, great job.

[@isabeladepaularibeiro4493]

i'm absolutely in love with your channel, thank you for being so thuthful. lots of love from brazil

[@Craw1011]

Giovanni's Room is spectacular, also I'd love to know if you're planning on reading DeLillo's new book. I know you enjoyed Underworld and I think it'd be cool to get your review in with all the others that'll be coming out when it's released.

[@alexszsalinas23]

Another Country is a fantastic novel, a little on the longer side, about interracial friendship, love (even between men), self-hatred, listlessness, and narrated by that fearless, serious Baldwin voice you mention in your video. It's mildly slow burning, but better than food once all consumed.

[@tiffanyanne7861]

I read this collection last week and I haven’t been able to pick up anything else. I read Giovanni’s Room in June and also couldn’t pick up anything else for a little while. I’m planning to pick up another Baldwin for September and I’m sure it’ll leave me in the same “book hangover” state as the others.

[@klaggins]

1) Been following your channel since shelter in place started. I've bought a few books based on some of your reviews and they've all slapped. May you ride shiny and chrome through the gates of Valhalla. 2) If you're to do Baldwin again, it really has got to be Another Country. It's merciless, painfully tender, and relevant. It's structured like an earthquake; the majority of the novel is a series of aftershocks caused by the undoing of a character whose existence in America was inherently rigged. Better than food.

[@nl3064]

"Going to meet the man" was a pretty good story, took a little while to get into it though. I read it right after reading Ralph Ellison's "A Party Down at the Square", also a short story about a lynching, which I liked slightly more.

[@RicardoGarfalo]

I have got to read James Baldwin! Thanks you Cliff for illucidating this book. James Baldwin debated William Buckley at Cambridge I think and Baldwin obliterated Buckley. That is worth a watch if you are interested.

[@ramadhan1481]

cool meaningful footage at the intro

[@ShellyflowersReadsandWrites]

I read Go Tell it on the Mountain earlier this year. It was powerful, particularly when I think about my Pentecostal upbringing.

[@selmadasschaf722]

For more fiction by Baldwin Giovannis Room and Another Country are fantastic! For his essays I'd recommend The Fire Next Time :-)

[@andreribeiro5233]

Have you ever read "Star's Time" (a hora da estrela) by Clarice Lispector? It's perfectly sad

[@Azzy1921]

I really recommend you read the franco argentinian author Copi. Or maybe the italian Rodolfo wilcock, especially the temple of the iconoclasts

[@fuzzydunlop4513]

Is “shot on both sides” a reference to Magazine?

[@marcelhidalgo1076]

Are you going to review Hurricane Season?

[@edharrisisbald]

Read most of his work and loved Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone

[@Lila117]

"How culture shapes a young mind..." deep.

[@guilhermealtenfeldergarcia8304]

Dnt know if you already done that, but if not you should read Machado de Assis' masterpiece "Dom Casmurro".

[@tiergas98]

I remember reading Goin to meet the man for college. Few works have left such a large impression

[@JordanBarclay]

I have an audiobook of most of these short stories on my channel!!

[@epicgamer1180]

after seeing the thumbnail I accidentally read 'James Brown' in the title.

[@ZareefPusha]

Native Son by Richard Wright please!

[@graves1860]

I've been chewing through short stories like a herd of goats through a hay field lately. This one made its way to the top of my stack a few days ago and my reactions were quite similar. I've since made everyone I possibly can read it. Excellent review as always, sir.

[@tont760]

Feel free to check out my full analysis on "Going to Meet the Man."

[@pjtiger10]

If Beale Street Could Talk is one of my favorite books ever and it’s Baldwin at his best if you’re looking for something else by him

[@TheJellFreak]

Ah my favourite, beautifully brutal - emotional short stories to despair over... on you go on to the to-read list

[@TheCandyShow]

The Fire Next Time is my favourite Baldwin.

[@rosedotson9814]

this was such a great video

[@xaviers6426]

So did the movie tank or what man lmao where the fuck is the eye movie

[@annamatsen3201]

Your discussion of the title story is spot on. I would add, however, that Baldwin's essay "Everybody's Protest Novel" provides some additionally useful context. The essay is mostly focused on *Uncle Tom's Cabin* and Richard Wright's *Native Son*, but the key part is that he criticizes "protest literature" for indulging in the horrors of racism and slavery too heavily without pairing those horrors with realistic villains. What he calls protest literature refuses to explore what he considers the true central question: how could it be that these horrors went on for so long with acceptance by so many? Because how can society be improved if we don't acknowledge the origins and justifications of horrifying behavior? To root out hatred, calling hatred bad isn't enough. It's too shallow. Making the villains the equivalent of "Saturday morning cartoons," so to speak, without any obvious motivation or complexity allows the root cause to go unexamined even as evil actions are denounced. Hence, I would argue that the short story "Going to Meet the Man" is his attempt to fill that gap -- to create literature that explores (certainly in Freudian terms) what is it that makes people perform or accept the dehumanization, enslavement, and murder of others. Even among the many lynchings of this era, the Jesse Washington lynching is truly horrifying. It takes the banality of evil to a truly grotesque extreme. And it's crazy that many people today don't even realize how recent these horrors were.

[@lyndao7356]

Bravely done. Thanks

[@irena7777777]

You should read James Lee Burke. He's a wordsmith.

[@Edmonddantes123]

Thank you!

[@avideepgabhawala2657]

do The Book Of Tea next please :)

[@sebastianx13]

Check out Chester Himes if you haven’t already

[@calebseewald3515]

This book traumatized me for life.

[@Loufi303]

Recently The New Yorker republished - or made available online, in any case - Baldwin's 1962 essay Letter From a Region in My Mind. His magnanimity and enlightenment - that really is the word, imho - is never condescending, but it is deadly to any notion of (white) supremacy.

[@brianbuch1]

I love all his books, but "Just Above My Head" is music!

[@dillonhoarau7990]

Why do you hate Infinite Jest?

[@bobsbigboy_]

so do I

[@connorwatersmith5575]

RIP Moustache 🥺

[@RB939393]

Check out Franz Fanon if you liked this.

[@dullknifefactory]

More Black Authors please .. If you reviewed Pimp by Iceberg Slim i'd lose my mind lol

[@brianbuch1]

"If He Hollers Let Him Go". Chester Himes and "The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey" Walter Mosley (not one of his detective stories, something quite different and moving).

[@gregmcknight5183]

Giovanni’s Room

[@21vgkoab]

I read Giovanni's room room quite recently l. Such a good book such an excellent writer I need to read more

[@whitetuxmafiaandfilms5042]

Hey piece of Afro-American literature that I think is very timely and timeless that Baldwin gave really positive reviews of. “The Lonely Crusade” by Chester Himes. It’s about interracial relationships, unionizing, Afro-Jewish solidarity and antagonism, and the ways communism both attracts the black people but is blinded by its own whiteness and pretentiousness. I gave this book to someone who really enjoyed Dirty Havana to give a better vibe of it.

[@Jojinho77]

Another country plssss

[@MrUndersolo]

I prefer the essays, but these stories are remarkable and uncomfortable, as they should be...

[@olihuebschmaaan]

I can't finish any of your videos, because halfway through I just want to read the book. You should try to be less good at talking about literature lol.

[@gondwanaman9362]

Marlon Brando... Roommates? Okay.

[@Juiceharlot]

Girl walking by on the phone:"And they were roommates." Guy sitting on steps:"omg, they were roommates." lmaoooooo

[@gondwanaman9362]

@@Juiceharlot no I meant it in a sarcastic way since Marlon Brando was gay

[@antigaia1817]

god, yes

[@brentkozak7025]

'Bleak as Hell'

[@zasterheffor]

To the down-voters: why?

[@dulfiona]

can u spell colonialism?

[@xaviers6426]

And why does your videos have so much jump cuts your not jermey jahns jesus christ what happened to u

[@genevievechap7459]

Ha non, tu as perdu ta moustache hihi

[@morteningemannpedersen8691]

Stop saying Ball sack!