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Go Tell It on the Mountain

By: James Baldwin, Roxane Gay - introduction
Narrated by: Roxane Gay, Joe Morton
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Publisher's summary

James Baldwin's haunting coming-of-age story, with a new introduction by Roxane Gay.

Originally published in 1953, Go Tell It on the Mountain was James Baldwin's first major work, based in part on his own childhood in Harlem. With lyrical precision, psychological directness, resonating symbolic power, and a rage that is at once unrelenting and compassionate, Baldwin chronicles a fourteen-year-old boy's discovery of the terms of his identity as the stepson of the minister of a Pentecostal storefront church in Harlem. Baldwin's rendering of his protagonist's spiritual, sexual, and moral struggle toward self-invention opened new possibilities in the American language and in the way Americans understood themselves.

©1952 James Baldwin (P)2024 Random House Audio
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Critic reviews

“With vivid imagery, with lavish attention to details, Mr. Baldwin has told his feverish story.”—The New York Times

“Brutal, objective and compassionate.”—San Francisco Chronicle

“It is written with poetic intensity and great narrative skill.”—Harper’s

What listeners say about Go Tell It on the Mountain

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Magnificent

I have never heard a narrator tell a story like this. He could be reading the phone book and it would be riveting! Having grown up in a strict Christian home, this was heavy. But so worth it. Thank you Mr Baldwin & Mr Morton.

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Haunting

The title could have been "The Lives In The Life Of John", as that's what's presented in this wrenching yet loving story.

The 24-hour period the primary story is about is used to enlighten the back-stories of the people in life of the protagonist, John. Some of the people had been enslaved - all were dealing with Jim Crow, and Christian fundamentalism (some credibly say pentecostalism) provides over-arching messaging that most of the book's characters chose for their life's structure. As is always the case with any professed faith, those spiritual tenets worked better for some than for others. But the 24/7 pressure for acceptance of and submission to said faith tenets was all-consuming in John's circle.

Much irony is presented without using snark. (Bitterness or snark are sometimes expressed by the characters - but not directly by the 3rd-person narrator.)

The book ends with a significant beginning, but fully portrays what has led up to this point.

Shout-out to the narrators for their exquisite reading/performing of this incredible book.

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Amazing Writing

Descriptive, emotional, realistic and honest. Protest literature at its best. My second James Baldwin novel. I'm planning to read more!

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Searing truths, beautifully rendered

Can’t recommend Gay’s introduction or this brilliant reading highly enough. A moving addition to the canon.

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