Go Tell it on the Mountain
Go Tell it on the Mountain by James Baldwin is a New Ed edition published by Penguin Adult on October 4, 2001, featuring 256 pages in English. This novel draws on Baldwin’s own experiences growing up in a religious community in 1930s Harlem, focusing on the life of young Johnny Grimes. As he grapples with his father’s oppressive expectations and the fervor of the church, Johnny’s journey unfolds against a backdrop of familial conflict and spiritual struggle.
Readers will find a narrative rich in themes of family life and coming of age, as Johnny navigates his complex relationship with his father, Gabriel, a preacher whose fanaticism creates a turbulent home environment. The story explores the interplay of faith and personal identity, revealing the emotional landscape of a young man caught between duty and desire. Baldwin’s prose captures the intensity of loneliness and longing, making this work a significant contribution to the literary canon.
Official synopsis Publisher
James Baldwin’s electrifying first novel.
‘I had to deal with what hurt me most. I had to deal with my father.’
Drawing on James Baldwin’s own boyhood in a religious community in 1930s Harlem, his first novel tells the story of young Johnny Grimes. Johnny is destined to become a preacher like his father, Gabriel, at the Temple of the Fire Baptized, where the church swells with song and it is as if ‘the Holy Ghost were riding on the air’. But he feels only scalding hatred for Gabriel, whose fear and fanaticism lead him to abuse his family. Johnny vows that, for him, things will be different. This blazing tale is full of passion and guilt, of secret sinners and prayers singing on the wind.
‘His prose hit me, almost winding me with its intensity. I’d never read a novel that described loneliness and desire with such burning eloquence’ Douglas Field, Guardian
‘A beautiful, enduring, spirtual song of a novel’ Andrew O’Hagan
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