We're invited to draw parallels between the roles a black man of this era is limited to in life and in the world of the performing arts. The fact that she and he are both famous actors affects their love story about as much as their racial difference. “It’s confusing there. Let us know what’s wrong with this preview of, Published I forget how Baldwin leaves me drowning. But that doesn't affect their feelings about each other nearly as much as it affects their ability to be together in socie. One would prefer, merely, that the key unlocked a less stunningly unusual door. I think if I had been a different person, maybe interested in theater or film, or if I had a brother, maybe that deeper connection would have been made. The narration by Kevin Kenerly of the audiobook was excellent. I preferred the parts of the book that dealt with the theater, but the parts about Leo's childhood in Harlem felt like I'd read them before in other Baldwin books and a lot of the book was pretty boring. In early 1998, when the Library of America published a two-volume set of selected works by Baldwin, Submit your short stories for review as a Word document attached to an email to: Read@Short-Story.Me Leo reflects regularly on the difficulties of real solidarity. He describes: "'Mister Baldwin,' they would say, 'are you saying we can expect trouble?' As he is in the hospital he thinks back on episodes of his life, in non-chronological order. It's definitely not an easy book to read and I will need to recover with lighter books for some time. (I basically only put it down occasionally to catch my breath.) Everyone desires love but also finds it impossible to believe that he deserves it.”, “I went down again. Use features like bookmarks, note taking and highlighting while reading Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone … He was a black, gay man who grew up in a working class family in Harlem and became an internationally renowned author and fighter for civil rights. The former love affair left out too many details. Tell Me is the story of an angry black man, and his friends and lovers, fighting their way through a fucked up world. He has not been successful; this is a simpleminded, one-dimensional novel with mostly cardboard characters, a polemical rather than narrative tone, weak invention and poor selection of incident. All of us who are doing the same should read his beautiful words. He did with it what he does best: present difficult themes like race and sexuality in America while allowing his reader to build a relationship with the characters. Tell Me has long been ignored in academia along with most of Baldwin's post-1962 writings. I can't say I experience many writers the way I do Baldwin. By the end, each character feels so aware of every single shift, seen and unseen. The story is told in flashbacks as Leo is recovering after having a heart attack on stage. In Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone Baldwin tells the story of Leo Proudhammer's life from his youth in Harlem to his rise to fame as an actor. All we can do now is just hold on. This novel is different from his earlier novels, being written when he was so much older -- more even-tempered and reflective. Leo Proudhammer, an African-American actor who grew up in Harlem and later moved into Greenwich Village, has a heart attack while on stage. He wasn't a political leader as such, and refused the tag of "voice of the movement". The book is set in no one place, but rather is a retelling of Proudhammer’s life, from his childhood in the ghettos of Harlem to the bright city stages. Best collection of short stories on the internet grows daily. I wonder what kind of story Baldwin would write in 2017. I appreciated Proudhammer's strong sense of identity, never seeming to doubt himself nor whom he loved as a Black, bi. I won’t bury the lede: Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone is one of my favorite works of 20th century literature; if you haven’t read it (or haven’t read Baldwin) you should consider that a gap worthy of being filled post haste. We're invited to draw parallels between the roles a black man of this era is limited to in life and in the world of the performing arts. Everyone desires love but also finds it impossible to believe that he deserves it. I wouldn't recommend starting with this book if you are new to Baldwin's work. Now, that doesn't mean shit, really, and yet it means everything." Once locked out, one will never again be forced to encounter in the eyes of a stranger who loves him the impenetrable truth concerning the stranger, oneself, who is loved. Goodreads helps you keep track of books you want to read. While each of these journeys has its set of benefits, I personally love train journeys. Welcome back. A beautiful story, structured like a series of memories during a turning point in a man's life. I feel Leo's written pretty inconsistently, especially with regard to his inner dialogue with his awareness as a politicized subject. Baldwin once said "You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read." And this sentiment is certainly what I felt whilst reading this wonderful novel. The book is set in no one place, but rather is a retelling of Proudhammer’s life, from his childhood in the ghettos of Harlem to the bright city stages. — Read more stories by Kids here. But it's also a story of solidarity. I thought that his love affairs were particularly uninteresting. Start by marking “Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone” as Want to Read: Error rating book. You won’t be able to tell which platform. … That there is. Everyone wis. And she’s right, I thought. So when Leo Proudhammer, a Black American born to a poor family in Harlem, takes it into his mind to become an actor, his brother is incredulous, until Leo makes the inspired observation that his prospects of success in any line of work available to him are precisely zero, and that is how American society is designed; however remote his prospects of success in acting, they are nevertheless better than nil by at least some marginal fraction. This one ebbs and flows. It is not the change in Baldwin's style which unsettles the academic circles - it is his growing radicalism. I appreciated Proudhammer's strong sense of identity, never seeming to doubt himself nor whom he loved as a Black, bisexual man during the 1940's. And she’s right, I thought. Download it once and read it on your Kindle device, PC, phones or tablets. I recognized this as love—recognized it very quietly and, for the first time, without fear. by Vintage. I have read three of his books so far and have made a promise to read every word he has ever written. Which makes sense, and makes the book feel well-marinated. An ocean of language. A look back at the life and struggles of Leo Proudhammer, as he recuperates from a near-fatal heart attack. It's a bloated, floaty, drifting novel that jumps timelines and burns slowly, but Baldwin dazzled me with his ability to make me want to spend a lot of time with this cast, despite not viewing them highly as human beings. It is a book that is as important for us to read now as it was in 1968. ", The back of this book makes it out to be the life story of a black actor who rises to greatness, but is "torn between two different kinds of love". Its safe to say that i have fallen deeply in love with James Baldwin and I have been brought back safely to novel-land. He believed in the power of love and personal relationships to overcome the horrors of the world and used those stories to describe the world. I recognized this as love—recognized it very quietly and, for the first time, without fear. He is of course less well known than the Stokely Carmichael's, the Malcolm X's and the Martin Luther King's. My heart and I went down again. Few writers have the capacity to make me fall in love, and to break my heart, and Baldwin does it best. It is tempting to choose Baldwin himself (or his biography at least) as the classic read. He wants solidarity in struggle and he wants it now. As he is in the hospital he thinks back on episodes of his life, in non-chronological order. His characters live and breathe in ways to which we can all relate, and exist in worlds we recognise. Baldwin is one of the most fascinating figures of the US civil rights movement. Therefore, one does many things, turns the key in the lock over and over again, hoping to be locked out. I travel long distance quite often and have travelled via buses, trains as well as aeroplanes. 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