Go Tell It on the Mountain

by James Baldwin
List(s):"Racine Library List"
Category: "Fiction - General"
Pages:221
Year of Publication:1952
Date Added:04/14/2009
Date Read:06/04/2009
Notes:The story of two generations in a Black family. Gabriel grew up wild, but one day felt called to be a preacher. He marries the unattractive Deborah who supports him in his ministry, but soon fathers a son by Esther, a girl he works with. Esther takes off and dies in childbirth. The son grows up wild and is killed in a bar fight.

Elizabeth ran off to New York with Richard. She got pregnant but before she could tell him, he commits suicide. She meets Gabriel through his sister, Florence, and he marries her to "rescue" her and her son John. They have a son together, named Roy, and Gabriel ignores John, but Roy is totally wild and uninterested in Gabriel's preaching. John has a religious experience which consists of rolling around on the church floor screaming gibberish for a couple hours. As the book ends, John is "saved," but realizes that his father isn't and that there's a battle of wills coming.
My Rating: 4

Reviews for Go Tell It on the Mountain

Review - Go Tell It on the Mountain

Supposedly, this book tells how people live and think. If that's true, people are seriously messed up. Baldwin uses a great deal of Scripture to write in a stream-of-consciousness style that makes no real sense and certainly doesn't mean what it is intended to mean. Everything is emotion, salvation comes when the Spirit and Satan battle over you as you roll on the floor. It got old quick and stayed there.
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