I first heard of James Baldwin back in American
Literature class in high school and college.
I remember enjoying his short stories and so I picked up a used copy of
If Beale Street Could talk quite a while ago.
Luckily the Classics Club has finally led me to pick up this book from
my to-read shelf and read it. I like that
on that front it says it is a masterpiece about the love between a man and a
woman . . . “One of the best novels of the year!” by the New York Times.
This novel was published in 1974, but besides the
language (“Can you dig it?” and calling people “Cats” figures heavily in the lingo)
the story could have been about 2018.
It’s deeply disturbing to me that the topic of racial inequality and the
targeting of African Americans by law enforcement should feel so relevant forty
years after the book was written.
Fonny and Tish grew up together in the same
neighborhood in New York City. At first,
they were enemies, then friends, then they eventually became lovers. Ready to get married, the two look for a
place to live until one-night Fonny is arrested for a rape he didn’t
commit. As their two families work
together, will they be able to get Fonny out of jail before Tish has their
baby?
I enjoyed reading this novel. It had a deep despair about the ill treatment
of African Americans in the United States and the work they have to do when they
live with “guilty until proven innocent”.
I was struck how Fonny had an alibi, but he was the only African
American man put in the lineup so the woman picked him as she had been raped by
an African American. Fonny’s alibi is
jailed so he can’t speak and then the rape victim disappeared to Puerto
Rico. Meanwhile Fonny is still stuck in
jail in a bad situation trying not to lose his spirit. What can you do when innocent until proven
guilty does not apply to you?
SPOILER BEGINS
I’ll admit I take one star off of my rating because of
the ending, which was not an ending. I
rate this a Grapes of Wrath type ending or the type of ending that causes me to
throw a book across the room. I spent
the whole book as a page turner trying to figure out if Fonny will get out of
jail or not . . . and then the book just ends.
Did Fonny get out of jail? Who
knows! Did Tish have their baby? We also don’t know! Argh!!!
I found it so frustrating.
I’ll admit though that I was leaning toward the ending
being that Fonny died in jail. He was put in jail because he did bow down to
the man and he was getting beaten and probably worse in jail the last few times
Tish saw him. I thought because he was
strong and not going to give up, he would end up dead. His father dies at the end after despair at
losing his job for stealing and not being able to get Fonny out of jail . . .
but it’s unknown what happened to Fonny.
I’m still upset about this ending – can you tell?
What endings of books have driven you crazy?
SPOILER END
Favorite Quotes:
“They know exactly when the flesh is ready, when the
spirit cannot fight back. The poor are
always crossing the Sahara. And the
lawyers and bondsmen and all that crowd circle around the poor, exactly like
vultures.”
“It’s funny what you hold on to to get through terror
when terror surrounds you.”
“The same passion which saved Fonny got him into
trouble, and put him in jail. For, you
see, he had found his center, his own center, inside him: and it showed. He wasn’t anybody’s nigger. And that’s a crime, this is fucking free
country. You’re supposed to be
somebody’s nigger. And if you’re
nobody’s nigger, you’re a bad nigger: and
that’s what the cops decided when Fonny moved downtown.”
“Maybe I’d feel different if I had done something and
got caught. But I didn’t do
nothing. They were just playing with
me, man, because they could.”
“One of the most terrible, most mysterious things
about a life is that a warning can be heeded in retrospect: too late.”
Overall, If Beale Street Could Talk is a sadly topical
book about the love between and a man and a woman and the struggle African
Americans face in this country. I found
it to be a page turner and it really made me think. I enjoyed it . . . except for the ending.
Book Source:
Purchased at a used book sale long ago.
This sounds like a very touching book. I've read Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin. Excellent review, Laura! (I can't think of any book endings that drove me crazy at this moment.)
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