Go tell it on the mountain

221 pages

English language

Published Nov. 7, 1970 by Dell.

OCLC Number:
2437067

View on OpenLibrary

(2 reviews)

In one of the greatest American classics, Baldwin chronicles a fourteen-year-old boy's discovery of the terms of his identity. Baldwin's rendering of his protagonist's spiritual, sexual, and moral struggle of self-invention opened new possibilities in the American language and in the way Americans understand themselves.

With lyrical precision, psychological directness, resonating symbolic power, and a rage that is at once unrelenting and compassionate, Baldwin tells the story of the stepson of the minister of a storefront Pentecostal church in Harlem one Saturday in March of 1935. Originally published in 1953, Baldwin said of his first novel, "Mountain is the book I had to write if I was ever going to write anything else."

23 editions

Review of Go Tell it on the Mountain

No rating

Like the protagonist, John, I grew up in an ultra-religious Christian household. If you don’t have that background, this novel might not speak as directly and intimately to you as it does to me. I call John the protagonist, but there are multiple viewpoints, including John’s preacher stepfather, his reprobate aunt, and his mother. The story branches off from a church service into their various sins and sufferings, past and present. There are no easy answers here, only understanding. I cried more than once, sometimes while also laughing in recognition.

avatar for Hristaki_K@bookwyrm.social

rated it

Subjects

  • Religion
  • African American men
  • African American families
  • African Americans
  • Racism
  • Fiction

Places

  • United States
  • Harlem (New York, N.Y.)