
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,...
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James Baldwin har skrivit fantastiska bcker, senare i livet. Denna debut r mest lst och kanske kndast. Jag r dock matad med bibeltyngda ark, och upp till halsmandlarna brddad, ltt illamende av menlsheter. Trtt mnniskors vgnar att frska leva upp till phittade gamla lustlsa sagor, allt medan de frstr verkligheten fr sina barn, fruar och mn. Denna bok har kvaliter, men jag mr bara inte bra i den.