James Baldwin – If Beale Street Could Talk

If you ever are asked to illustrate the maxim about not judging a book from it’s cover, then I suggest this is a perfect example. The cover could be used for a Harlequin romance, and both front and back covers are plastered with quotations about what a wonderful love story it is.

I can only assume that this was a desperate attempt by the publishers not to frighten people off, this is not a love story, this is an angry book. It’s angry at the system, the white man, and those who substitute faith for decency. But if it is a polemic, it is no less effective as a work of fiction. The love story might not be the main theme of the book, but it is convincingly written, and the family relationships that form the emotional core of the book are superbly done. The prose snaps, the dialogue crackles (not sure if anything pops).