Another Country

 

Another Country
Another Country
by Authors: JAMES BALDWIN
Released: 01 December, 1992
ISBN: 0679744711
Paperback

Sales Rank: 94,516
List price: $14.00
Our price: $10.50 (You save: $3.5)
Book > Another Country > Customer Reviews:
  Average Customer Rating:

Another Country > Customer Review #1:
A life-saver

I can only echo the praise of several other of the reviewers here. This has always been my favorite of all Baldwins novels, one that literally saved my life at the time I first read it. My deep empathy with the pain the characters were undergoing (so like what I myself was feeling at the time) and the gratitude I felt for the fact that they were SO eloquent in being able to verbalize that pain made this book an indelible a part of my life. In the years since my first exposure to it, I have read and re-read it innumerable times and it never fails to have a profound effect on me. As close to Dostoyevsky as any American novel has ever come, in my opinion. No distancing irony -- its a book that believes deeply and asks you to feel deeply (the ultimate crime, it seems, in these post-modern times when youre never supposed to be caught actually CARING about anything). Theres no way I could recommend it highly enough.

Another Country > Customer Review #2:
Captivating story

James Baldwin has done it again! This is another one of his many literary masterpieces! In "Another Country" he weaves the lives of the characters into a rich and mesmerizing tapestry. Basically to summarize this book, a jazz musician commits suicide, leaving the people that loved him left to speculate as to what drove him to it, while ultimately forcing them to reflect upon their own lives and who they really are. This is a very powerful book that will leave you spellbound. But more importantly it makes one feel for these people, whether it is devotion, sympathy, pity or anger. The story is so gripping that it pulls the reader into the lives of the characters and gives us insight into drives them to behave as they do. Their stories are compelling and painful: the last days of Rufus life, Idas anger over his death, Vivaldos battle to make Ida love him, Erics memories growing up in Alabama and Cass and Richards seemingly perfect but ultimately flawed marriage. The characters are so vivid they seem to just step right out from the pages: Vivaldo, Ida, Cass, Richard, Rufus and Eric seem so real its as if they truly exist! This is a highly recommended work of literary art! Also recommended are James Baldwins other novels, "Giovannis Room", "Tell Me How Long the Trains Been Gone" and "Going to Meet The Man", which is a collection of short stories.

Another Country > Customer Review #3:
the universal language of love

This is an extremely intense, beautiful, and believable book about the complicated textures of relationships. Not only about the "typical" man-woman union, Baldwins richly woven story also contains homosexual and bisexual relationships; inter-racial relationships; intricate and deeply explored male friendships; and, to a lesser degree (though with no less accuracy), the careful dance of womens friendships. The relationship between blacks and whites. The relationship between racists and non-racists. The relationship between the rich and the poor, between sell-outs and non sell-outs. So much is touched upon and examined in this novel that the 436 pages seem more like 600, and by the end I found myself taking notes. But the complexity was not at all daunting. Because of Baldwins deep (but never boring) detailing and because of the fact that all of these topics are limited to the lives of six main characters, I was completely enthralled and moved, and often had to pause to consider my own feelings and viewpoints.

To me, this book is amazing simply because James Baldwin is able to make a thirty year old midwestern girl feel as though she thoroughly knows and understands a fictional group of struggling and eclectic writers and musicians from 1960s New York City. With _Another Country_, so aptly titled because Rufus, Vivaldo, Cass, Richard, Eric and Ida each seem to have their own, Baldwin was also able to further open a mind I thought was pretty wide already.



 
Another Country > Related Products
Giovannis Room Go Tell It on the Mountain The Fire Next Time Just Above My Head Tell Me How Long the Trains Been Gone Nobody Knows My Name Notes of a Native Son Invisible Man Blues for Mister Charlie : A Play Going to Meet the Man : Stories
architect books