Just above My Head, James Baldwin
Just above My Head, James Baldwin
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Just above My Head

Author: James Baldwin

Narrator: Kevin Kenerly

Unabridged: 20 hr 45 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 05/17/2016

Categories: Fiction, Classic, Urban

Synopsis

The stark grief of a brother mourning a brother opens this novel with a stunning, unforgettable experience. Here, in a monumental saga of love and rage, Baldwin goes back to Harlem, to the church of his groundbreaking novel Go Tell It on the Mountain, to the homosexual passion of Giovanni’s Room, and to the political fire that inflames his nonfiction work.Here, too, the story of gospel singer Arthur Montana and his family becomes both a journey into another country of the soul and senses—and a living contemporary history of black struggle in this land.

About James Baldwin

James Baldwin (1924–1987), acclaimed New York Times bestselling author, was educated in New York. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, received excellent reviews and was immediately recognized as establishing a profound and permanent new voice in American letters. The appearance of The Fire Next Time in 1963, just as the civil rights movement was exploding across the American South, galvanized the nation and continues to reverberate as perhaps the most prophetic and defining statement ever written of the continuing costs of Americans’ refusal to face their own history. It became a national bestseller, and Baldwin was featured on the cover of Time. The next year, he was made a member of the National Institute of Arts and Letters and collaborated with the photographer Richard Avedon on Nothing Personal, a series of portraits of America intended as a eulogy for the slain Medger Evers. His other collaborations include A Rap on Race with Margaret Mead and A Dialogue with the poet–activist Nikki Giovanni. He also adapted Alex Haley’s The Autobiography of Malcolm X into One Day When I Was Lost. He was made a commander of the French Legion of Honor a year before his death, one honor among many he achieved in his life.

About Kevin Kenerly

Kevin Kenerly, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, earned a BA at Olivet College. A longtime member of the Oregon Shakespeare Festival, he has acted in more than twenty seasons, playing dozens of roles.

Reviews

Goodreads review by bruin on July 15, 2008

i read this book on the train and would often weep audibly while reading. all the commuters would stare and crane their necks to see what i was reading-- once an older lady who was sitting next to me patted my arm a bit while tears were rolling down my face. building community on the train through s......more

Goodreads review by Wade on July 26, 2008

God damn. James Baldwin's novels are intense, and this is the best I've read. He writes so sharply, almost viciously, about the inner thoughts and experiences of his characters--in this case, a Black family in New York in the 1940s-60s. He is unsparing about the state of racial, sexual, and religiou......more

Goodreads review by Darryl on May 18, 2023

Ooh-wee, I finally finished this. And that means that I’ve now completed every novel in Baldwin’s bibliography…and what a fkn firecracker to end with. This novel gave me whiplash. It’s so spirited and operatic. What is love? And what lengths will we go to keep it? We explore all-consuming love, suffo......more

Goodreads review by Γιάννης on December 07, 2019

To καλύτερο μυθιστόρημα που διάβασα φέτος. Βαθιά ανθρώπινο, τρυφερό, συγκινητικό. Παρά τον όγκο του, φεύγει εύκολα.......more

Quotes

“If Van Gogh was our nineteenth-century artist-saint, James Baldwin is our twentieth-century one.” Michael Ondaatje, New York Times bestselling author

“A fine novel…It seems impossible for [Baldwin] to write with anything other than eloquence. His great and peculiar power is to re-create the maddening halfway house that the black man finds himself in late-twentieth-century America.” New Yorker

“The work of a born storyteller at the height of his powers…glimpses of family life in Harlem, rapturous music-making in the churches, moments of uneasiness in even the most casual meetings between whites and blacks—scenes that Baldwin seems preternaturally gifted in understanding.” New York Times Book Review

“This not a novel to read anywhere you can’t sit down: Just above My Head has required the most emotional work from me out of all the books I’ve read. But if you have the time, it will reward you with the unshakable feeling that you really have lived in the world of its characters and have come to understand something about yourself.” Paris Review

“A big new novel by James Baldwin is always of major interest, and there are scenes here of Baldwin at his earthy, lyrical best.” Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

Awards

  • Voice Arts Award
  • Paris Review Selection
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