Another Country by James Baldwin.

3/5 rating. 366 pages.

Book #55 of 2021. Read August 10, 2021.

This is the story of a small group of friends who feel all the pain, heartbreak, and distress of love.

This is the first Baldwin book I’ve read and I probably will now seek out some others. Though I only rated this a 3 his literary genius and ability to build dynamic characters and make poignant statements about life was on full display.

The themes in this book are varied and can speak to everyone: love, loss, despair, race, and many more.

Obviously, Baldwin as a black man with some male partners in the 50s and 60s had a very different lens on the world than I do. I think the hardest part about this book for me was just the resigned belief of many of the characters of the evilness, and darkness in the world. From his experience, this is likely more prevalent than what I’ve seen, but I like to see more of the positive in the world. The book was still good, just not great.

There were some very poignant and thoughtful quotes, that I enjoyed:

• “I think, that we all commit our crimes. The thing is not to lie about them – to try to understand what you have done, why you have done it.”
• “It had been written because he was afraid, afraid of things dark, strange, dangerous, difficult, and deep.”
• “If the world wasn’t so full of dead folks maybe those of us that’s trying to live wouldn’t have to suffer so bad.”
• “But don’t lose heart, dear ones – don’t lose heart. Don’t let it make you bitter. Try to understand. Try to understand. The world’s already bitter enough, we got to try to be better than the world.”

Additional Quotes:

“Entirely alone, and dying of it, he was part of an unprecedented multitude.”

“Ages and ages ago, Ida had not been merely the descendant of slaves.”

“[B]ut somewhere along the line he had discovered that he could say it with a saxophone. He had a lot to say.”

“People’s just people as far as I’m concerned.”

“‘What makes you think I want to hurt you?’

‘People do,’ she said, finally, ‘hurt each other.’”

“We’ve been terribly broke, Rufus – “

“But the air through which he rushed was his prison and he could not even summon the breath to call for help.”

“He wanted to stand up, breathe, and at the same time he wanted to lie on the floor and to be swallowed into whatever would stop this pain.”

“‘I’m going to try to pull myself together,’ he said, ‘and get back to work.’”

“She thought of all they had discovered together and meant to each other, and of how many small lies had gone into the making of their one, particular truth: this love, which bound them to one another.”

“‘But they didn’t,’ she said, ‘happen to you because you were white. They just happened. But what happens up here’ – and the cab came out of the park; she stretched her hands, inviting him to look – ‘happens because they are colored. And that makes a difference.’”

“He was young, he was bright, he was beautiful, we expected great things from him – but he’s gone away from us now and it’s us will have to make the great things happen.”

“‘I hate funerals,’ she said, finally, ‘they never seem to have anything to do with the person who died.’

‘No,’ he said, ‘funerals are for the living.’”

“‘I’d like to make her know that the world’s not as black as she thinks it is.’

‘Or,’ she said, dryly, after a moment, ‘as white.’”

“The great question that faced him this morning was whether or not he had ever, really, been present at his life.”

“But even simple pleasure, bought and paid for, did not take long to fail – pleasure, as it turned out, was not simple.”

“He kissed her again, a little drunk with her heat, her taste, her smell.”

“I don’t know why people can’t do what they want to do; what harm are we doing to anybody?”

“There also appeared in his face a certain fear. It was this fear which Eric sometimes despaired of conquering, in Yves, or in himself. It was the fear of making a total commitment, a vow; it was the fear of being loved.”

“There was nothing to say; there was too much to say.”

“‘I didn’t know,’ he said, ‘that it would be so easy to feel at home again.’”

“The world is full of all kinds of people, and sometimes they do terrible things to each other…”

“Don’t let all that light fade.”

“But I know that I am not about to be bugged by any more white jokers who still can’t figure out whether I’m human or not.”

“Love was a country he knew nothing about.”

“And now – now it seemed that they were all equal in misery, confusion, and despair.”

“I just love to see people happy,”

“What happened to people? why did they suffer so hideously?”

“Perhaps he was afraid, as Vivaldo knew himself to be afraid, of any real change in his condition.”

“I think sin should be fun.”

“‘I mean, I think you’ve got to be truthful about the life you have. Otherwise, there’s no possibility of achieving the life you want.’ He paused. ‘Or think you want.’”

“But, oh, Lord, when he died, I thought that maybe I could have saved him if I’d just reached out that quarter of an inch between us on that bed, and held him.”

“There were so many things one did not dare to know.”

“‘You did once,’ he said, ‘that you wanted to grow. Isn’t that always frightening?’”

“Sweetheart, suffering doesn’t have a color.”

“Well. Cass is beautiful, as you know. But life is grim.”

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