Review: Baldwin, The Cross of Redemption (2010)

[truepenny]

The Cross of Redemption: Uncollected Writings by James Baldwin

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


This is a collection of Baldwin's previously uncollected essays, letters, book reviews, and a short story. The essays are painful because they could have been written yesterday, so little has changed for Black Americans in the last fifty years. The reviews are mostly scathing (the way he deals with James M. Cain is especially delightful), and if I had been one of his contemporaries, I would have gone in mortal dread of a James Baldwin review. Overall, I find that I simply enjoy his voice, even when he is telling horrible truths. (I was meh about the short story, but I am meh about most fiction these days; even James Baldwin cannot offer a miracle cure.)



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