James Baldwin's electrifying first novel. 'I had to deal with what hurt me most. I had to deal with my father.' Drawing on James Baldwin's own boyhood in a religious community in 1930s Harlem, his first novel tells the story of young Johnny Grimes. Johnny is destined to become a preacher like his father, Gabriel, at the Temple of the Fire Baptized, where the church swells with song and it is as if 'the Holy Ghost were riding on the air'. But he feels only scalding hatred for Gabriel, whose fear and fanaticism lead him to abuse his family. Johnny vows that, for him, things will be different. This blazing tale is full of passion and guilt, of secret sinners and prayers singing on the wind. 'His prose hit me, almost winding me with its intensity. I'd never read a novel that described loneliness and desire with such burning eloquence' Douglas Field, Guardian 'A beautiful, enduring, spirtual song of a novel' Andrew O'Hagan
ISBN: | 9780141185910 |
Publication date: | 4th October 2001 |
Author: | James Baldwin, Andrew O'Hagan |
Publisher: | Penguin Classics an imprint of Penguin Books Ltd |
Format: | Paperback |
Pagination: | 272 pages |
Series: | Penguin Modern Classics |
Genres: |
Modern and Contemporary Fiction Biographical Fiction Narrative theme: Coming of age Family Drama Religious and spiritual fiction |