Go Tell it on the Mountain

This novel by James Baldwin comes in at #39 on the ML list and #36 on the RR list.  After all these  British titles we’ve been reading it is a welcome change to read a very American novel.  No fancy drawing rooms here, no tea parties or anything remotely diverting or proper, but a really great novel.  It’s the semi-autobiographical story of a young boy and his struggle to feel love and acceptance for who he is.  The novel is set in the 1930’s in Harlem in New York City and follows John Grimes on the day and evening of his fourteenth birthday.  Interspersed with his story is the story of his parents, Gabriel and Elizabeth. 

I found similarities with this novel and The Way of All Flesh by Samuel Butler--7/04/11 post-- in that it is the story of a young boy being raised by a religious father who is not well liked by that son.  But where the English let you know what they think in a subtle, sometimes ironic way we Americans like you to know exactly where we stand on things.  John on Gabriel:  He lived for the day when his father would be dying and he, John, would curse him on his deathbed.  Wow, John, tell us how you really feel. 

Unlike Ernest in Butler’s novel, John is sincerely trying to find his faith and spiritual self.  He struggles with what he believes to be a sinful regard for material things and experiences that God would (supposedly) frown on.  With the few coins his mother gives him for his birthday he goes to see a movie. (From the description of the movie, it sounds a lot like “Of Human Bondage” another book on my list--2/14/11 post, with a boy raised by a cleric.)  To help him in his struggle between the material and spiritual worlds a friend at church, Elisha, explains how it will be when John truly believes.  God “gives you a new mind and a new heart, and then you don’t find no pleasure in the world, you get all your joy in walking and talking with Jesus every day.”  Doesn't sound that hot to me but that is what John is supposed to be hoping for apparently.  While John is trying to sort all this out we get the background on the parents. 

SPOILER ALERT:  It probably will not come as a huge surprise to find that Gabriel is not John’s biological father and so does not provide an excuse for, but at least a reason for his treatment of John.  Also, if the story of his mother Elizabeth and his real father, Richard doesn’t break your heart, you might need to question if you have one.

Everyone struggles with their belief in God in this book.  Gabriel’s sister, Florence, whose history also is told knows she will never have true faith no matter how hard she tries.  Gabriel thinks himself a true believer but he is a horrible hypocrite.  In church he fears that a voice he hears is John “astonished beneath the power of the Lord” but upon realizing it is Elisha “his fear departed.”  He refuses to give this boy his love but doesn’t want him to know the love of God?  He is a piece of work.

John struggles with many universal questions but also has experiences that are uniquely his as an African American.  His father tells him to hate all white people, and there are no positive stories in any one’s history involving anyone white.  Elizabeth has the most articulate of thoughts on this subject.   “She sat there, and she hoped one day God, with tortures inconceivable, would grind them [the white world] utterly into humility, and make them know that black boys and black girls, whom they treated with such condescension, such disdain, and such good humor, had hearts like human beings too…”

I found this to be a very readable and powerful book.   And there is on this day of his birthday anyway, a happy ending for John.

Next week:  We both read "Brideshead Revisited" by Evelyn Waugh