Go Tell It on the Mountain Audiobook By James Baldwin, Roxane Gay - introduction cover art

Go Tell It on the Mountain

A Novel (Vintage International)

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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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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 African American Coming of Age Family Life Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Inspiring

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
Compelling Storytelling • Historical Significance • Exquisite Reading • Poetic Writing • Deep Characterization

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The language of the gospel as a mythology, the way he uses this as a scaffolding on which to hang the experiences of the book's family and the African-American experience itself, is brilliant.

Raw honesty, full of heart

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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.

Magnificent

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At risk of writing an essay on this, I’m just going to highly recommend it to anyone interested in great autobiographical fiction, great writing, brilliant narrative, and frankly moving, conflicting, intensely human themes…

I’m not a good enough thinker or writer to put into words all I’m feeling after reading this, but as someone who grew up in similarly religious environments (though white, and 60-70 years later), who struggled to cling to religious fire in hopes it would destroy my teenager (not hetero) lust, who grew up with a hypocritical deacon step father, etc, I really highly related to John’s struggle.. Too much of this is oh so familiar, but also much of it falls far outside my experience, most obviously not being a black man growing up in Harlem while Jim Crow raged at peak power in The South.. Still, I have empathy, and just felt taken on a roller coaster up spiritual heights and valleys, jerked around between the themes of light and darkness, the struggle and ecstasy of the spirit and the carnal. So much intensity packed into a relatively short listen.

Anyway, this is becoming much longer than intended. The last point I really want to emphasize is the brilliance of the performance. This is one of the best narrations I’ve ever listened to, fiction or nonfiction. Brilliant work! 10/10

Truly Incredible..

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The book should be required reading. ..at least for Christian schools. But I found profound understanding in subject matter that once frightened me.

The characters are well written and knowable.

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So so moving and beautiful. This book is a window into black culture and history but gently and deeply draws you in

The narrative

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