Melissa A. (areadingwoman) reviewed on 1/8/2010 + 30 more book reviews

Helpful Score: 4

As a teacher, I read this book for one of our reading lists to make an objective test, the novel itself would never be taught. I had anticipated that it would be a boring book that simply retold the story of Invisible Mas or The Interesting Narrative of Oloudah Equiano, stories about the suffering of African Americans. Though I find that topic interesting, I think that no author has done done it justice like James Baldwin has done. As an English major, when reading African American narratives, I awlays get the main point but feel as though I've read the same novel again and again. This particular book has given me a new perspective. It makes me wonder if there is something different in a "black" spirit than in a "white" spirit. I have always considered black people the same as white people, but Bladwin's story makes me wonder if there isn't something different. The children of the characters in the novel are strong willed, more so than in any novel about whites I have read. Their spirit seems unconquerable, which would make sense given that they survived slavery. Each character in this is strong and derives their strength from their color, perhaps in spite of it. As someone who views and treats black people as equals, this is the first novel that made me consider that there is, in fact, something different between the races because of race. Not necessarily a bad thing, but something inside us from waking up and looking in the mirror everyday and having to live as a different color.

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