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| There is not a lot to recommend this dark, dismal cover of the book but it is the Mass Market Publishing version of the book I read. |
Title: Go Tell It On the Mountain by James Baldwin (1953)
Book Beginnings quote:
(Part One. The Seventh Day) I looked down the line, and I wondered. Everyone had always said that John would be a preacher when he grew up, just like his father.
Friday56 quote:
(Part Two. The Prayers of the Saints) Light and life to all He brings, / Risen with healing in His wings! Florence raised her voice in the only song she could remember that her mother used to sing: "It's me, it's me, it's me, oh, Lord, / Standing in the in the need of prayer."
Summary:
Drawing on James Baldwin's own boyhood in a religious community in 1930s Harlem, his first novel tells the story of young Johnny Grimes. Johnny is destined to become a preacher like his father, Gabriel, at the Temple of the Fire Baptized, where the church swells with song and it is as if 'the Holy Ghost were riding on the air'. But he feels only scalding hatred for Gabriel, whose fear and fanaticism lead him to abuse his family. Johnny vows that, for him, things will be different. This blazing tale is full of passion and guilt, of secret sinners and prayers singing on the wind. (StoryGraph)
Review: I knew this book had something to do with religion because, um, the title "Go Tell It On the Mountain" is a popular Christmas carol about the birth of Jesus. But even with this big hint, I was not prepared for how religious it truly is. In fact, as I was reading about John's conversion experience I wondered how many people reading along would be completely overwhelmed by the experience.
The story is set in Harlem in the mid 1930s and is thought to be semi-autobiographical in that Baldwin grew up in Harlem during this time period and had a fanatical step-father, like Gabriel, who would attempt to beat sin out of his children with the buckle end of his belt.
The two sides of Christianity are explored in Go Tell It On the Mountain. There is the god-fearing, kind, generous, praying-for-you side where people go to church to be part of a community of other loving people. And in these hard times during the Depression and so much racism, it is good to find a place to belong. Then there is the other side of the faith. The judgmental, do-it-my-way-or-the-highway side. A place where a stepfather can beat his son while calling himself godly. And the physical church can be either a welcoming or a terrifying place for many folks.
Johnny, whose real father died before he was born, never knew fatherly love. Even though members of his church saw something in him which led them to think he had the makings of a future pastor, his step-father could only look on him as a sinner due to the circumstances of his birth.
Go Tell It On the Mountain was James' Baldwin's first novel. Before he started writing/publishing, he indeed spent some time as a pastor in a a little church in Harlem. We have no idea about the author's own conversion experience, but that of Johnny in the book was real and dramatic -- a real life-changer. We are also given the tiniest of glimpses of some sexual awareness within the character -- another thing the brutal step-father might want to beat out of the boy. Later in life Baldwin had to move to France as he feared for his life if he said in the USA as a gay man.
I've owned my copy of Go Tell It On the Mountain for years, though I don't remember how or where I got it. This beat up copy was published in 1976 by Dell Publishing. It is dogeared and has some water damage. There were some phrases and sentences underlined, so perhaps it's first owner used it for a college literature class. It was cheaply made with the print centered on the page so it was difficult to read the text near to the center column. I had to fight with the book, using hand strength to keep it open wide enough to read all the words. Ugh.
Other than the physical experience of reading a poorly constructed book, I found it a profoundly emotional experience. I've known "Christians" like Gabriel-- angry and self-righteous. In fact a lot of the news of Christians today focuses on the unloving, racists, bigoted, misogynistic things they do in the name of Christ. It makes me sad because I think that faith should be a welcoming, loving, accepting experience for people. I fear that people are being repelled rather than welcomed to the Christian church of today.
I rated the book with 4.25 stars. And it did make me want to break out and sing the Christmas Carol so I found this nice rendition for your listening enjoyment:
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