Book Review: The Fire Next Time

"The Fire..." is a trailblazer

Stars: 4/5

The Fire Next Time (1963) by James Baldwin begins with "My Dungeon Shook", a letter to his nephew; a `let's keep it real' moment between elder and youth. Baldwin informs to his nephew that because of the color of his skin, white America has cast him in a role in which he has no control:

"You were born into a society....You were not expected to aspire to excellence; you were expected to make peace with mediocrity."

The selection that follows, "Down At The Cross", offers a flashback to Baldwin's most impressionable adolescent years where he vividly recounts the state of affairs of black folk in Harlem:

"For the wages of sin were visible everywhere, in every wine-stained...hallway, in every clanging ambulance bell..., in every helpless, newborn baby being brought into this danger, in every...fight on the Avenue, and in every disastrous bulletin: a cousin, mother of six, suddenly gone mad, the children parcelled out here and there; an indestructible aunt rewarded for years of hard labor by a slow agonizing death in a terrible small room..."

This then broadens into a frank discussion concerning faith, which consumes the remainder of the book. From Baldwin's religious enlightenment and conversion, to his meeting with Elijah Muhammed, to his views on the treatment of the American Negro, you will discover what makes this book such an interesting read.

The Fire Next Time is an exploration into the complexities of the 1960s through the thoughts of one of the most significant Black writers of the time.


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