Go Tell It On The Mountain
by James Baldwin | Literature & Fiction | This book has not been rated.
ISBN: Global Overview for this book
ISBN: Global Overview for this book
This Book is Currently in the Wild!
2 journalers for this copy...
First published 1953.
This semi-autobiographical bildungsroman focuses on the complex and often fragile social bonds surrounding the protagonist John as he celebrates his fourteenth birthday and, that night, falls to the “threshing-floor” of his stepfather Gabriel’s Harlem church in a climatic adult initiation. Gabriel, whom John believes to be his biological father, is a volatile, domineering force who ran wild as a very young man before experiencing an early religious epiphany that prompted him to preach the wrath of God. Gabriel married John’s mother to rescue her from the trials of single motherhood, but condemns her loving acceptance of John, which to Gabriel shows an unconscionable shamelessness over John’s illegitimacy and her relationship with his father, her first love. Gabriel himself fathered an illegitimate child during his first marriage — a fact that he has continually guarded under the guise of repentance. He holds his silence regarding his orphaned son, who grew up hard and died violently and young.
While most of this history is not known to John, he is an intuitive boy who senses exactly the sorts of hazard that Harlem presents to black adolescents, especially those unprotected by an institution, usually the church. The loving support that John receives from Elisha, one of the church’s young leaders, vibrates with an intensely joyful homoeroticism on which John can imagine building a fulfilling future in the church. Insofar as his stepfather is the figure responsible for doctrinal exegesis and enforcement, however, there is only a cruel vindictiveness that works to frighten and shame its believers into unquestioning obedience. The physical and emotional exhaustion of John’s hallucinatory conversion allows him an early morning moment of triumphant respite, however brief. — Anna Foca in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die
This semi-autobiographical bildungsroman focuses on the complex and often fragile social bonds surrounding the protagonist John as he celebrates his fourteenth birthday and, that night, falls to the “threshing-floor” of his stepfather Gabriel’s Harlem church in a climatic adult initiation. Gabriel, whom John believes to be his biological father, is a volatile, domineering force who ran wild as a very young man before experiencing an early religious epiphany that prompted him to preach the wrath of God. Gabriel married John’s mother to rescue her from the trials of single motherhood, but condemns her loving acceptance of John, which to Gabriel shows an unconscionable shamelessness over John’s illegitimacy and her relationship with his father, her first love. Gabriel himself fathered an illegitimate child during his first marriage — a fact that he has continually guarded under the guise of repentance. He holds his silence regarding his orphaned son, who grew up hard and died violently and young.
While most of this history is not known to John, he is an intuitive boy who senses exactly the sorts of hazard that Harlem presents to black adolescents, especially those unprotected by an institution, usually the church. The loving support that John receives from Elisha, one of the church’s young leaders, vibrates with an intensely joyful homoeroticism on which John can imagine building a fulfilling future in the church. Insofar as his stepfather is the figure responsible for doctrinal exegesis and enforcement, however, there is only a cruel vindictiveness that works to frighten and shame its believers into unquestioning obedience. The physical and emotional exhaustion of John’s hallucinatory conversion allows him an early morning moment of triumphant respite, however brief. — Anna Foca in 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die
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Journal Entry 3 by Vasha at Collegetown Bagels, 203 North Aurora St. in Ithaca, New York USA on Sunday, October 25, 2015
