Go Tell It on the Mountain
by James Baldwin · first published 1952
83% recommend17% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Baldwin's first novel, which lays the groundwork for his later work. Its treatment of racism and the Black experience is incisive and powerful. Well suited to early readers of his writing.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
In one of the greatest American classics, Baldwin chronicles a fourteen-year-old boy's discovery of the terms of his identity. Baldwin's rendering of his protagonist's spiritual, sexual, and moral struggle of self-invention opened new possibilities in the American language and in the way Americans understand themselves. With lyrical precision, psychological directness, resonating symbolic power, and a rage that is at once unrelenting and compassionate, Baldwin tells the story of the stepson of the minister of a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem one Saturday in March of 1935. Originall
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I recently read my first two Baldwin books (Go Tell It On The Mountain and The Fire Next Time) and in both cases I was blown away by the completeness of his treatment of racism at a time when black people were fighting for much more basic civil rights. I also recently read…
on “Why James Baldwin Still Matters” ↗I think I've given "Go Tell It On The Mountain" by James Baldwin more times than any other book.
on “Ask HN: What book have you given as a gift?” ↗Go tell it on the mountain, it was his first book and lays the foundation for everything he did later. Amazing book
on “James Baldwin, Here and Elsewhere” ↗…recommended by the magazine. My advice would be, rather than preventing librarians to do their job, maybe write better books? Prevent new commands rather than remove already existing books? Because putting 'Go Tell It on the Mountain' on the shelves isn't ideology, just good taste. Removing it is. What really grind my gear is that I would bet censors don't read or review books. Book reviewing was a staple of my curriculum from 11…
on “US public schools banned 10k books in most recent academic year” ↗…thinker to accept. If you think that the inline definition of "intersectional" is an accurate one, the rest of the essay follows. You may or may not learn anything, though if this prompts you to read "Go Tell It on the Mountain", that would be a great outcome. If you actually know anything about theory, then you'll see the rest of the essay as rhetorical shadow-boxing with something no one is actually saying.
on “James Baldwin's Apotheosis” ↗…Mockingbird 6. Moby Dick (I’m not the biggest fan of this actually but it’s way better than Gatsby for me) 7. Walden (Does this count? Anyway whatever. Walden) 8. Portrait of a Lady 9. Infinite Jest 10. Go tell it on the mountain Honestly this is right off the top of my head and looking back I haven’t even got any Hemingway on here, or Ralph Ellison, or Toni Morrison. I could make a case for Slaughterhouse 5 or Catch-22 or The…
on “The Great Gatsby is the most misunderstood novel” ↗- Go tell it on the mountain by James Baldwin - The doors of perception by Aldous Huxley - The Patriarch (Joseph Kennedy biography) by David Nasaw
on “Ask HN: What books are you currently reading?” ↗