The Devil Finds Work, James Baldwin
The Devil Finds Work, James Baldwin
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The Devil Finds Work
An Essay

Author: James Baldwin

Narrator: Dion Graham

Unabridged: 3 hr 41 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 08/08/2017

Synopsis

Baldwin’s personal reflections on movies gathered here in a book-length essay are also a probing appraisal of American racial politics.Offering an incisive look at racism in American movies and a vision of America’s self-delusions and deceptions, Baldwin challenges the underlying assumptions in such films as In the Heat of the Night, Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner, and The Exorcist.Here are our loves and hates, biases and cruelties, fears and ignorance reflected by the films that have entertained us and shaped our consciousness. And here too is the stunning prose of a writer whose passion never diminished his struggle for equality, justice, and social change.

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 Dion Graham

Dion Graham is an award-winning narrator named a “Golden Voice” by AudioFile magazine. He has been a recipient of the prestigious Audie Award numerous times, as well as Earphones Awards, the Publishers Weekly Listen Up Awards, IBPA Ben Franklin Awards, and the ALA Odyssey Award. He was nominated in 2015 for a Voice Arts Award for Outstanding Narration. He is also a critically acclaimed actor who has performed on Broadway, off Broadway, internationally, in films, and in several hit television series. He is a graduate of Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of the Arts, with an MFA degree in acting.

Reviews

Goodreads review by B. P. on August 05, 2018

"I found a leak in my building, and: my soul has got to move. I say: my soul has got to move, my soul has got to move." - Epigraph for chapter three. Being a black cinephile, I am always interested in reading other black cinephiles. James Baldwin just happens to be one such man. He has included some......more

Goodreads review by Nancy on June 30, 2021

excellent. This book may have been written in 1976 but given the topics at hand it is still beyond pertinent today. Honestly, I loved this book. more to come......more

Goodreads review by Daniel on December 15, 2019

James Baldwin was a life-long film lover from his early childhood, and here he attacks racism in the film industry... in his own way, of course. Unfortunately for me he focuses on several classic films I've never seen. He hits hard on the pro-KKK (!!) film The Birth of the Nation. Then works through......more

Goodreads review by chantel on February 10, 2022

Really enjoyed his critiques of Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and In the Heat of the Night both starring Sidney Poitier. James Baldwin eviscerating some of the plot holes and faulty logic that some of these films are peddling as a means to push false narratives will never not be edutainment to me. Si......more

Goodreads review by Alvin on September 20, 2015

Baldwin dissects films to discover their subterranean socio-political agendas and and weaves in some fascinating personal history to boot. He perhaps reads a little too much into his interpretations, but is essentially correct about everything. A tough book for me, though, because I love Hollywood h......more

Quotes

“Graham is the quintessential voice for Baldwin’s words…In this smoothly produced recording, listeners are allowed time to absorb the intricate ideas due to Baldwin’s thoughtful placement of punctuation and Graham’s mindful use of natural pauses. Graham’s sonorous tones are also an ideal match for these powerful essays on race, class, and gender in American film. A worthy addition to any public library’s audiobook collection…Consider placing this in a comprehensive film collection as well.“ Booklist (audio review)

“The best essayist in this country—a man whose power has always been in his reasoned, biting sarcasm, his insistence on removing layer by layer the hardened skin with which Americans shield themselves from their country.” New York Times Book Review

“[Baldwin] has taken the old subject of race and made it even more personal, probing perhaps more deeply than ever before into American racial practices.” Nation

“A provocative discussion.” Saturday Review

“It will be hard for the reader to see these films in quite the same way again.” Christian Science Monitor

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