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Blues pour Sonny
« Certains échappaient à cette prison. La plupart y demeuraient. Ceux qui s'en échappaient laissaient toujours quelque chose d'eux-mêmes en arrière, comme certains animaux qui se coupent une patte et la laissent dans le piège. Peut-être, après tout, aurait-on pu dire que je m'étais évadé puisque j'étais professeur, ou que Sonny s'était évadé puisqu'il ne vivait plus à Harlem depuis des années ; et pourtant, tandis que le taxi roulait dans les rues qui paraissaient s'emplir rapidement de Noirs et que j'observais à la dérobée le visage de Sonny, il me vint à l'esprit que ce que nous cherchions tous deux à travers les vitres de cette voiture, c'était cette partie de nous-mêmes que nous avions laissée en arrière. »
Dans cette nouvelle de 1957, Baldwin tisse magistralement le destin de deux frères, deux « enfants de Harlem ».
Dans cette nouvelle de 1957, Baldwin tisse magistralement le destin de deux frères, deux « enfants de Harlem ».
80 pages, Paperback
Published August 15, 2024
14 people are currently reading
456 people want to read
About the author
James Baldwin
385 books16.9k followersLibrarian Note: There is more than one author in the Goodreads database with this name. See this thread for more information.
Works of American writer James Arthur Baldwin, outspoken critic of racism, include Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), a novel, and Notes of a Native Son (1955), a collection of essays.
James Arthur Baldwin authored plays and poems in society.
He came as the eldest of nine children; his stepfather served as a minister. At 14 years of age in 1938, Baldwin preached at the small fireside Pentecostal church in Harlem. From religion in the early 1940s, he transferred his faith to literature with the still evident impassioned cadences of black churches. From 1948, Baldwin made his home primarily in the south of France but often returned to the United States of America to lecture or to teach.
In his Giovanni's Room, a white American expatriate must come to terms with his homosexuality. In 1957, he began spending half of each year in city of New York.
James Baldwin offered a vital literary voice during the era of civil rights activism in the 1950s and 1960s.
He first partially autobiographically accounted his youth. His influential Nobody Knows My Name and The Fire Next Time informed a large white audience. Another Country talks about gay sexual tensions among intellectuals of New York. Segments of the black nationalist community savaged his gay themes. Eldridge Cleaver of the Black Panthers stated the Baldwin displayed an "agonizing, total hatred of blacks." People produced Blues for Mister Charlie , play of Baldwin, in 1964. Huey Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, defended Baldwin.
Going to Meet the Man and Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone provided powerful descriptions. He as an openly gay man increasingly in condemned discrimination against lesbian persons.
From stomach cancer, Baldwin died in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France. People buried his body at the Ferncliff cemetery in Hartsdale near city of New York.
Works of American writer James Arthur Baldwin, outspoken critic of racism, include Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), a novel, and Notes of a Native Son (1955), a collection of essays.
James Arthur Baldwin authored plays and poems in society.
He came as the eldest of nine children; his stepfather served as a minister. At 14 years of age in 1938, Baldwin preached at the small fireside Pentecostal church in Harlem. From religion in the early 1940s, he transferred his faith to literature with the still evident impassioned cadences of black churches. From 1948, Baldwin made his home primarily in the south of France but often returned to the United States of America to lecture or to teach.
In his Giovanni's Room, a white American expatriate must come to terms with his homosexuality. In 1957, he began spending half of each year in city of New York.
James Baldwin offered a vital literary voice during the era of civil rights activism in the 1950s and 1960s.
He first partially autobiographically accounted his youth. His influential Nobody Knows My Name and The Fire Next Time informed a large white audience. Another Country talks about gay sexual tensions among intellectuals of New York. Segments of the black nationalist community savaged his gay themes. Eldridge Cleaver of the Black Panthers stated the Baldwin displayed an "agonizing, total hatred of blacks." People produced Blues for Mister Charlie , play of Baldwin, in 1964. Huey Newton, co-founder of the Black Panther Party, defended Baldwin.
Going to Meet the Man and Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone provided powerful descriptions. He as an openly gay man increasingly in condemned discrimination against lesbian persons.
From stomach cancer, Baldwin died in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, France. People buried his body at the Ferncliff cemetery in Hartsdale near city of New York.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 126 reviews
December 9, 2023
Powerful and deeply moving story of two brothers trying to come to terms with their relationship amidst crime, drug abuse and potential wasted. Baldwin is one of the most brutally honest writers I have ever encountered - he is also extremely prophetic in his ability to see past the failure of policies that have worsened the plight of African Americans. Highest recommended.
October 22, 2016
This review probably contains spoilers.
It's the 1950's in Harlem, and times are hard for two young men , brothers, who have lost their parents and are now trying to find their own way in life, separately, with differing ideas about how to go about it, but still connected, as brothers are everywhere. The younger brother, Sonny, knows he has to escape Harlem to live the kind of life he wants. He loves music, Jazz and Blues, and he wants to earn his way in life doing what he loves. His older brother, the unnamed narrator, let's call him James, is a teacher, and he is more conservative. He thinks Sonny is making a bad choice, one that will lead to failure, or worse. Also, James feels guilty because he promised their mother he would look out for Sonny, but Sonny slips away, slips into the life he always dreamed of.
Baldwin's vision of life for these two brothers is not a pretty one, and I'm sure it reflects his own struggles about family and future. What he shows us in this story is that life's struggles can be overcome, and the bonds of family, of brotherhood, are never really lost, and that something like music can be the catalyst that brings us together, and heal the wounds of life.
It's the 1950's in Harlem, and times are hard for two young men , brothers, who have lost their parents and are now trying to find their own way in life, separately, with differing ideas about how to go about it, but still connected, as brothers are everywhere. The younger brother, Sonny, knows he has to escape Harlem to live the kind of life he wants. He loves music, Jazz and Blues, and he wants to earn his way in life doing what he loves. His older brother, the unnamed narrator, let's call him James, is a teacher, and he is more conservative. He thinks Sonny is making a bad choice, one that will lead to failure, or worse. Also, James feels guilty because he promised their mother he would look out for Sonny, but Sonny slips away, slips into the life he always dreamed of.
Baldwin's vision of life for these two brothers is not a pretty one, and I'm sure it reflects his own struggles about family and future. What he shows us in this story is that life's struggles can be overcome, and the bonds of family, of brotherhood, are never really lost, and that something like music can be the catalyst that brings us together, and heal the wounds of life.
March 11, 2023
"Sonny's Blues" is a deeply emotional short story about two African American brothers at several points in their lives. The narrator is the more traditional man who works as a high school algebra teacher in Harlem. The younger brother, Sonny, has done jail time for heroin sales. Sonny feels things very deeply and finds an escape from suffering in contemporary jazz. Sonny's brother is grieving after the death of a family member. When the narrator goes to Sonny's jazz club to hear Sonny play the blues, the brothers reach an emotional understanding. It's through the melancholy music that Sonny is able to transform his suffering into something beautiful and meaningful.
The 1957 short story incorporates music, religion, grief, addiction, and the pain of poverty in Harlem into its plot. James Baldwin's writing just blew me away with its memorable moments - when their mother revealed their tragic family history, when a revival choir sings "That Old Ship of Zion," and when Sonny and his friends play the blues.
The 1957 short story incorporates music, religion, grief, addiction, and the pain of poverty in Harlem into its plot. James Baldwin's writing just blew me away with its memorable moments - when their mother revealed their tragic family history, when a revival choir sings "That Old Ship of Zion," and when Sonny and his friends play the blues.
March 13, 2023
“It filled everything, the people, the houses, the music, the dark, quicksilver barmaid, with menace; and this menace was their reality.”
In Sonny’s Blues, James Baldwin tells us about Harlem, and two brothers who have survived a number of tragedies, the older brother trying to help the younger one avoid mistakes that could lead to even more heartbreak. They struggle to understand each other, and in the end, connect in a way that takes your breath away.
There is no one like Baldwin. One of my favorite of his many talents is his skill with details. He uses precise dialogue and movement and sounds and thoughts to conjure life for us, life so true that we can’t help but see it, can’t help but feel it. And once we’ve seen it and felt it, we know something we didn’t know before.
Revealing, artistic, haunting.
“He don’t want to die. He wants to live. Don’t nobody want to die, ever.”
In Sonny’s Blues, James Baldwin tells us about Harlem, and two brothers who have survived a number of tragedies, the older brother trying to help the younger one avoid mistakes that could lead to even more heartbreak. They struggle to understand each other, and in the end, connect in a way that takes your breath away.
There is no one like Baldwin. One of my favorite of his many talents is his skill with details. He uses precise dialogue and movement and sounds and thoughts to conjure life for us, life so true that we can’t help but see it, can’t help but feel it. And once we’ve seen it and felt it, we know something we didn’t know before.
Revealing, artistic, haunting.
“He don’t want to die. He wants to live. Don’t nobody want to die, ever.”
October 27, 2025
There's something indescribably unique about the way Baldwin writes especially when he writes about Black life, pain, love, and survival. He never dramatizes or softens it. He doesn't add unnecessary decoration, nor does he strip it down to make it easier to digest.
His writing is honest, raw in the most delicate way and because of that, it doesn't simply ask you to understand; it makes you feel. It holds your face gently but firmly in the truth and says: Be here. Don't look away.
There are books I love because I can debate, analyse, or logically agree with them and in those cases, I always have the words. But then there are stories like Sonny's Blues.
Stories that don't ask for logic first, but for the heart. They don't wait to be explained; they are felt. They sit quietly in your chest, in that place where words don't easily reach.
And even when I try to explain why it touched me, language fails a little because what Baldwin writes isn't meant to be simply understood. It's meant to be carried.
What stayed with me most was how Baldwin writes about suffering and addiction, not as moral failures, but as human responses to unbearable pain. He doesn't excuse them, but he understands them. Sonny isn't addicted because he is weak; he is addicted because, as he says, "there's no way not to suffer... but you try all kinds of ways to keep from drowning in it." That line destroyed me.
Because it's true, nobody chooses pain, they just choose their way of surviving it. Some choose silence. Some choose work. Some choose music. Some choose drugs. It doesn't make the pain smaller, it just makes it temporarily livable.
And that's why Sonny's music feels so important. It's not about talent, it's about survival. When he plays, it feels like he's taking all that darkness and turning it into something that can be heard, shared, maybe even understood. And for a moment, his suffering isn't just something that ruins him, it becomes something that connects him to others.
This story doesn't promise healing. It just says: we suffer, out we try anyway. And somehow, that's enough. Baldwin's writing leaves you a little quieter inside, not sad exactly, just aware. Aware that pain, love, addiction, and art all exist together, and that maybe that's what makes being alive
bearable.
Also this reminds me of specific lyrics on mirror by Kendrick ( of course I was going to compare the two of them)
🎵”Don't you point a finger just to point a
finger
'Cause critical thinkin' is a deal-breaker
Faith in one man is a ship sinking
Do yourself a favor and get a mirror
that mirror grievance
Then point it at me so the reflection
can mirror freedom…
I choose me, I'm sorry”🎵
I loved the other two stories but this one just hit different.
His writing is honest, raw in the most delicate way and because of that, it doesn't simply ask you to understand; it makes you feel. It holds your face gently but firmly in the truth and says: Be here. Don't look away.
There are books I love because I can debate, analyse, or logically agree with them and in those cases, I always have the words. But then there are stories like Sonny's Blues.
Stories that don't ask for logic first, but for the heart. They don't wait to be explained; they are felt. They sit quietly in your chest, in that place where words don't easily reach.
And even when I try to explain why it touched me, language fails a little because what Baldwin writes isn't meant to be simply understood. It's meant to be carried.
What stayed with me most was how Baldwin writes about suffering and addiction, not as moral failures, but as human responses to unbearable pain. He doesn't excuse them, but he understands them. Sonny isn't addicted because he is weak; he is addicted because, as he says, "there's no way not to suffer... but you try all kinds of ways to keep from drowning in it." That line destroyed me.
Because it's true, nobody chooses pain, they just choose their way of surviving it. Some choose silence. Some choose work. Some choose music. Some choose drugs. It doesn't make the pain smaller, it just makes it temporarily livable.
And that's why Sonny's music feels so important. It's not about talent, it's about survival. When he plays, it feels like he's taking all that darkness and turning it into something that can be heard, shared, maybe even understood. And for a moment, his suffering isn't just something that ruins him, it becomes something that connects him to others.
This story doesn't promise healing. It just says: we suffer, out we try anyway. And somehow, that's enough. Baldwin's writing leaves you a little quieter inside, not sad exactly, just aware. Aware that pain, love, addiction, and art all exist together, and that maybe that's what makes being alive
bearable.
Also this reminds me of specific lyrics on mirror by Kendrick ( of course I was going to compare the two of them)
🎵”Don't you point a finger just to point a
finger
'Cause critical thinkin' is a deal-breaker
Faith in one man is a ship sinking
Do yourself a favor and get a mirror
that mirror grievance
Then point it at me so the reflection
can mirror freedom…
I choose me, I'm sorry”🎵
I loved the other two stories but this one just hit different.
February 6, 2017
Three short stories about life in Harlem for young black children. Other reviewers have pointed to the 1950's which seems right with situations described - eg mention of horse and cart deliveries, motor cars, the evolved state of jazz ("Like Louis Armstrong?"... "No. I'm not talking about none of that old-time, down-home crap.")
These are not happy memory stories, they are hard times. Themes include disconnection (and reconnection) of family, drugs, jazz, parental relationship / control of children, societal disconnection.
Well written, realistic and atmospheric - great description in these short, easy to read stories.
Four stars.
These are not happy memory stories, they are hard times. Themes include disconnection (and reconnection) of family, drugs, jazz, parental relationship / control of children, societal disconnection.
Well written, realistic and atmospheric - great description in these short, easy to read stories.
Four stars.
February 18, 2024
”Creole started into something else — it was almost sardonic. It was Am I Blue. And as though he commanded, Sonny began to play. Something began to happen, and Creole let out the reigns. The dry, low Black man said something awful on the drums, Creole answered, and the drums talked back. Then the horn insisted, sweetly detached, perhaps, and Creole listened, commenting now and then, dry and driving, beautiful and calm and old. Then they all came together again, and Sonny was part of the family again.”
”And I felt my own tears begin to rise. And I was yet aware that this was only a moment, that the world waited outside as hungry as a tiger, and that trouble stretched above us longer than the sky.”
Reading James Baldwin’s fiction is much like listening to a classical theme and variations. In a very real sense, all of his fiction represents one continuous composition, and all the individual novels and stories are beautiful variations on Baldwin’s momentous theme of Pain, Sorrow, and Love.
The doomed or broken brother was a theme Baldwin returned to again and again. It made its first appearance here, in Sonny’s Blues, (1957) as an older, more conventional brother tries to understand and care for his drug addicted, jazz musician brother. Baldwin returns to it in Another Country, (1962) where Ida, for all her efforts, cannot save her big brother, Rufus, a tragic and doomed musician. And Sonny’s Blues almost reads as a short dress rehearsal for Baldwin’s final, great novel Just Above My Head, (1979) where Hal, the more rooted older brother looks back on the life of his quicksilver younger brother Arthur, a gospel/soul singer not destined for the long game.
Obviously, the theme of broken brothers, with all the pain, love and sorrow they imply, was deeply felt by Baldwin. In Sonny’s Blues he captured it brilliantly in absolutely gorgeous prose. He also came as close to capturing the essence of jazz in prose as has ever been accomplished.
Sonny’s Blues is sad, insightful, and stunningly beautiful. It is a minor masterpiece.
”And I felt my own tears begin to rise. And I was yet aware that this was only a moment, that the world waited outside as hungry as a tiger, and that trouble stretched above us longer than the sky.”
Reading James Baldwin’s fiction is much like listening to a classical theme and variations. In a very real sense, all of his fiction represents one continuous composition, and all the individual novels and stories are beautiful variations on Baldwin’s momentous theme of Pain, Sorrow, and Love.
The doomed or broken brother was a theme Baldwin returned to again and again. It made its first appearance here, in Sonny’s Blues, (1957) as an older, more conventional brother tries to understand and care for his drug addicted, jazz musician brother. Baldwin returns to it in Another Country, (1962) where Ida, for all her efforts, cannot save her big brother, Rufus, a tragic and doomed musician. And Sonny’s Blues almost reads as a short dress rehearsal for Baldwin’s final, great novel Just Above My Head, (1979) where Hal, the more rooted older brother looks back on the life of his quicksilver younger brother Arthur, a gospel/soul singer not destined for the long game.
Obviously, the theme of broken brothers, with all the pain, love and sorrow they imply, was deeply felt by Baldwin. In Sonny’s Blues he captured it brilliantly in absolutely gorgeous prose. He also came as close to capturing the essence of jazz in prose as has ever been accomplished.
Sonny’s Blues is sad, insightful, and stunningly beautiful. It is a minor masterpiece.
Want to read
April 28, 2010Because I've read this excerpt I want to read the whole book: "All I know about music is that not many people really hear it. And even then, on the rare occasions when something opens within, and the music enters, what we mainly hear, or hear corroborated, are personal, private, vanishing evocations. But the man who creates the music is hearing something else, is dealing with the roar rising from the void and imposing order on it as it hits the air. What is evoked in him, then, is of another order, more terrible because it has no words, and triumphant, too, for that same reason. And his triumph, when he triumphs, is ours.
I had never before thought of how awful the relationship must be between the musician and his instrument. He has to fill it, this instrument, with the breath of life, his own. He has to make it do what he wants it to do. And a piano is just a piano. It's made of so much wood and wires and little hammers and big ones, and ivory. While there's only so much you can do with it, the only way to find this out is to try; to try and make it do everything.
He hit something in me, myself, and the music tightened and deepened, apprehension began to beat the air. [He:] began to tell us what the blues were all about. They were not about anything very new. He and his boys up there were keeping it new, at the risk of ruin, destruction, madness, and death, in order to find new ways to make us listen. For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn't any other tale to tell, it's the only light we've got in all this darkness.
I seemed to hear with what burning he had made it his, with what burning we had yet to make it ours, how we could cease lamenting. Freedom lurked around us and I understood, at last, that he could help us to be free if we would listen, that he would never be free until we did."
I had never before thought of how awful the relationship must be between the musician and his instrument. He has to fill it, this instrument, with the breath of life, his own. He has to make it do what he wants it to do. And a piano is just a piano. It's made of so much wood and wires and little hammers and big ones, and ivory. While there's only so much you can do with it, the only way to find this out is to try; to try and make it do everything.
He hit something in me, myself, and the music tightened and deepened, apprehension began to beat the air. [He:] began to tell us what the blues were all about. They were not about anything very new. He and his boys up there were keeping it new, at the risk of ruin, destruction, madness, and death, in order to find new ways to make us listen. For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn't any other tale to tell, it's the only light we've got in all this darkness.
I seemed to hear with what burning he had made it his, with what burning we had yet to make it ours, how we could cease lamenting. Freedom lurked around us and I understood, at last, that he could help us to be free if we would listen, that he would never be free until we did."
June 24, 2019
I couldn’t believe it: but what I mean by that is that I couldn’t find any room for it anywhere inside me. I had kept it outside me for a long time. I hadn’t wanted to know.
*
Well, the word had never before sounded as heavy, as real, as it sounded that afternoon [...]
*
[...] it was as though he were all wrapped up in some cloud, some fire, some vision all his own; and there wasn't any way to reach him.
*
And then there are some who just live, really, in hell, and they know it and they see what's happening and they go right on.
*
I wanted to say more, but I couldn't. I wanted to talk about will power and how life could be - well, beautiful. I wanted to say that it was all within; but was it? or, rather, wasn't that exactly the trouble? And I wanted to promise that I would never fail him again. But it would all have sounded - empty words and lies.
*
"It's terrible sometimes, inside," he said, "that's what's the trouble. You walk these streets, black and funky and cold, and there's not really a living ass to talk to, and there's nothing shaking, and there's no way of getting it out- that storm inside. You can't talk it and you can't make love with it, and when you finally try to get with it and play it, you realize nobody's listening. So you've got to listen. You got to find a way to listen."
*
[...] and I thought I'd die if I couldn't get away from it and yet, all the same, I knew that everything I was doing was just locking me in with it.
*
[...] as I covertly studied Sonny's face, it came to me that what we both were seeking through our separate cab windows was that part of ourselves which had been left behind. It's always at the hour of trouble and confrontation that the missing member aches.
*
And I was yet aware that this was only a moment, that the world waited outside, as hungry as a tiger, and that trouble stretched above us, longer than the sky.
*
You get so used to being hit you find you're always waiting for it.
*
Well, the word had never before sounded as heavy, as real, as it sounded that afternoon [...]
*
[...] it was as though he were all wrapped up in some cloud, some fire, some vision all his own; and there wasn't any way to reach him.
*
And then there are some who just live, really, in hell, and they know it and they see what's happening and they go right on.
*
I wanted to say more, but I couldn't. I wanted to talk about will power and how life could be - well, beautiful. I wanted to say that it was all within; but was it? or, rather, wasn't that exactly the trouble? And I wanted to promise that I would never fail him again. But it would all have sounded - empty words and lies.
*
"It's terrible sometimes, inside," he said, "that's what's the trouble. You walk these streets, black and funky and cold, and there's not really a living ass to talk to, and there's nothing shaking, and there's no way of getting it out- that storm inside. You can't talk it and you can't make love with it, and when you finally try to get with it and play it, you realize nobody's listening. So you've got to listen. You got to find a way to listen."
*
[...] and I thought I'd die if I couldn't get away from it and yet, all the same, I knew that everything I was doing was just locking me in with it.
*
[...] as I covertly studied Sonny's face, it came to me that what we both were seeking through our separate cab windows was that part of ourselves which had been left behind. It's always at the hour of trouble and confrontation that the missing member aches.
*
And I was yet aware that this was only a moment, that the world waited outside, as hungry as a tiger, and that trouble stretched above us, longer than the sky.
*
You get so used to being hit you find you're always waiting for it.
July 18, 2018
Empathy through suffering and the blues. This short story is some of the best elements of Baldwin's fiction used to convey the central themes that he wrote about. Though I feel that his best writing is his non-fiction (something he always disagreed with), he is still one of the great fiction writers of his generation. This was a short story that would have made Anton Chekhov proud with its depth and feel for humanity as represented by the two brothers. James Baldwin's ability to re-create Harlem is second only to James Joyce's ability to re-create Dublin.
"He hopes that there will never come a time when the old folks won't be sitting around the living room, talking about where they've come from, and what they've seen, and what's happened to them and their kinfolk.
But something deep and watchful in the child knows that this is bound to end, is already ending. In a moment someone will get up and turn on the light. Then the old folks will remember the children and they won't talk any more that day. And when light fills the room, the child is filled with darkness. He knows that every time this happens he's moved just a little closer to that darkness outside. The darkness outside is what the old folks have been talking about. It's what they've come from. It's what they endure. The child knows that they won't talk any more because if he knows too much about what's happened to them, he'll know too much too soon, about what's going to happen to him."
The nameless protagonist tells the story of his brother and really his whole family. It is non-linear (showing that the magical realists did not have a monopoly on that in the post-war) and it is a distinctly urban tale. Harlem lives in this story and it is a key character in this story, but the journey of the brothers away from each other and back to each other is the heart of this tale. One had to recognize the pain of the other ("My trouble made his real."), and the other had to be willing to be ready to forgive. The protagonist and Sonny's reconciliation does not complete itself until they are in the jazz club (one of the most brilliant passages in 20th century fiction), but when it happens it brings the story to a unified whole.
"Then it was over. Creole and Sonny let out their breath, both soaking wet, and grinning. There was a lot of applause and some of it was real. In the dark, the girl came by and I asked her to take drinks to the bandstand. There was a long pause, while they talked up there in the indigo light and after awhile I saw the girl put a Scotch and milk on top of the piano for Sonny. He didn't seem to notice it, but just before they started playing again, he sipped from it and looked toward me, and nodded. Then he put it back on top of the piano. For me, then, as they began to play again, it glowed and shook above my brother's head like the very cup of trembling."
"He hopes that there will never come a time when the old folks won't be sitting around the living room, talking about where they've come from, and what they've seen, and what's happened to them and their kinfolk.
But something deep and watchful in the child knows that this is bound to end, is already ending. In a moment someone will get up and turn on the light. Then the old folks will remember the children and they won't talk any more that day. And when light fills the room, the child is filled with darkness. He knows that every time this happens he's moved just a little closer to that darkness outside. The darkness outside is what the old folks have been talking about. It's what they've come from. It's what they endure. The child knows that they won't talk any more because if he knows too much about what's happened to them, he'll know too much too soon, about what's going to happen to him."
The nameless protagonist tells the story of his brother and really his whole family. It is non-linear (showing that the magical realists did not have a monopoly on that in the post-war) and it is a distinctly urban tale. Harlem lives in this story and it is a key character in this story, but the journey of the brothers away from each other and back to each other is the heart of this tale. One had to recognize the pain of the other ("My trouble made his real."), and the other had to be willing to be ready to forgive. The protagonist and Sonny's reconciliation does not complete itself until they are in the jazz club (one of the most brilliant passages in 20th century fiction), but when it happens it brings the story to a unified whole.
"Then it was over. Creole and Sonny let out their breath, both soaking wet, and grinning. There was a lot of applause and some of it was real. In the dark, the girl came by and I asked her to take drinks to the bandstand. There was a long pause, while they talked up there in the indigo light and after awhile I saw the girl put a Scotch and milk on top of the piano for Sonny. He didn't seem to notice it, but just before they started playing again, he sipped from it and looked toward me, and nodded. Then he put it back on top of the piano. For me, then, as they began to play again, it glowed and shook above my brother's head like the very cup of trembling."
January 20, 2025
Nouvelle envoutante et plus lumineuse que ce que j'ai déjà lu de l'auteur. J'ai adoré les remarques sur la musique et le lien entre un homme et son instrument.
June 27, 2022
Title story: What an astounding piece of literature. I'm shocked.
March 30, 2022
3 μικρά διηγήματα με ιδιαιτερο ύφος και ταυτότητα . Η ιστορία του Σοννυ ξεχωρίζει και δίνει μια ταυτότητα σε αυτά . Μια πρώτη γνωριμία για μενα με την γραφή του πιο δημοφιλούς μαύρου συγγραφέα της γενιάς του που σίγουρα θα ανακαλύψω στο μελλον.
January 26, 2022
"For, while the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph is never new, it always must be heard. There isn't any other tale to tell, it's the only light we've got in all this darkness."
December 14, 2025
This was a reread. And I haven’t changed my mind. This is my single favourite piece of Baldwin‘s writing. It is spare, controlled, hard and elegiac. It soars and it grinds. It’s dirty, and the most beautiful thing.
April 20, 2017
Wow. What an outstanding talent. This novella was not only incredibly well written, with a magnetic rhythm into it, it also touched me deeply. This was the best short novel I've read and I definitely need to read more (or everything) by Baldwin.
It's better to step into it blindly so I will only say one more thing: please read this!
It's better to step into it blindly so I will only say one more thing: please read this!
October 17, 2023
Such a remarkable short story I read for my English class. Just the way music and suffering are described is so beautiful yet heartbreaking. I’m definitely looking forward to reading more of James Baldwin’s works!
May 9, 2024
میدونم که بیشتر دربارهی اعتیاد، موسیقی، شرایط سیاهپوستها و غیره بود امّا تمام مدّت داشتم به رابطهی دو برادر و مقایسهش با سمفونی مردگان فکر میکردم. که چی میشد اگه اورهان هم مثل راویِ بیاسمِ داستان، برادرش رو میفهمید؟
July 13, 2025
PERFECT😩😩😩😩
December 19, 2025
Que c'est beau... mélancolique, magnifique... A écouter avec "Am I blue" du grand Ray Charles pour une expérience de lecture optimale...
May 26, 2008
In movies and tv shows about writers there always comes a point where you have to hear what the young genius has written, and it's always lame. The way James Baldwin writes is exactly how those passages should sound, perfect genius shining through in every choice of word. Maybe it's because he has such big stuff to write about - it's hard to write superbly if you don't have much to say. He articulates brilliantly feelings that are so difficult to express, and not just about race - I've never read better descriptions of music than those to be found in "Sonny's Blues".
November 11, 2025
so rare for me to enjoy the fiction of an essayist, but this was a great intro to baldwin
November 19, 2025
blew me away, i don’t even know how to go about my day after finishing this
December 9, 2025
Baldwin da goattttt
March 31, 2024
ულამაზესი წიგნია, ჯეიმს ბოლდუინის წიგნები როგორ არ გვაქვს თარგმნილი ქართულად შოკში ვარ...
"But there's no way not to suffer is there, Sonny?" "I believe not," he said and smiled, "but that's never stopped anyone
from trying." He looked at me. "Has it?" I realized, with this mocking look, that there stood between us, forever, beyond the power of time or forgiveness, the fact that I had held silence-so long!-when he had needed human speech to help him. He turned back to the window. "No, there's no way not to suffer. But you try all kinds of ways to keep from drowning in it, to keep on top of it, and to make it seem well, like you. Like you did something, all right, and now you're suffering for it. You know?" I said nothing. "Well you know," he said, impatiently, "why do people suffer? Maybe it's better to do something to give it a reason, any reason."
"But we just agreed," I said, "that there's no way not to suffer. Isn't it better, then, just to take it?"
"But nobody just takes it," Sonny cried, "that's what I'm telling you! Everybody tries not to. You're just hung up on the way some people try it's not your way!"
The hair on my face began to itch, my face felt wet. "That's not true," I said, "that's not true. I don't give a damn what other people do, I don't even care how they suffer. I just care how you suffer." And he looked at me. "Please believe me," I said, "I don't want to see you die trying not to suffer."
"I won't," he said, flatly, "die trying not to suffer. At least, not any faster than anybody else."
"But there's no way not to suffer is there, Sonny?" "I believe not," he said and smiled, "but that's never stopped anyone
from trying." He looked at me. "Has it?" I realized, with this mocking look, that there stood between us, forever, beyond the power of time or forgiveness, the fact that I had held silence-so long!-when he had needed human speech to help him. He turned back to the window. "No, there's no way not to suffer. But you try all kinds of ways to keep from drowning in it, to keep on top of it, and to make it seem well, like you. Like you did something, all right, and now you're suffering for it. You know?" I said nothing. "Well you know," he said, impatiently, "why do people suffer? Maybe it's better to do something to give it a reason, any reason."
"But we just agreed," I said, "that there's no way not to suffer. Isn't it better, then, just to take it?"
"But nobody just takes it," Sonny cried, "that's what I'm telling you! Everybody tries not to. You're just hung up on the way some people try it's not your way!"
The hair on my face began to itch, my face felt wet. "That's not true," I said, "that's not true. I don't give a damn what other people do, I don't even care how they suffer. I just care how you suffer." And he looked at me. "Please believe me," I said, "I don't want to see you die trying not to suffer."
"I won't," he said, flatly, "die trying not to suffer. At least, not any faster than anybody else."
March 21, 2014
Years ago I read two novels by James Baldwin (ANOTHER COUNTRY and GIOVANNI'S ROOM) and they impressed me greatly. This set of three short stories reignited that positive impression. In 'Sonny's blues' the difficult relationship between two brothers is described. One is a jazz musician, and Baldwin's description of the emotional impact of watching jazz being performed live is quite powerful. 'The rockpile' portrays some of the pitfalls of raising a family in the inner city. The experiences of the main character in 'Previous condition' can only be said to describe Apartheid-USA. Baldwin slices open the African American life in New York in the decades after the Second World War with anger, caring and bucketloads of writing ability. An excellent rediscovery for me!
In hierdie drie kortverhale beeld James Baldwin die lewe van Afro-Amerikaners in New York in die dekades ná die Tweede Wêreldoorlog uit met deernis en skerp waarneming. Sy karakters is van vlees en bloed en lewe hul klein lewens met passie. Dis veral die uitbeelding van Apartheid-Amerika wat ontstel. Baldwin is 'n uiters belangrike skrywerstem uit die Amerikaanse letterkunde en vir my 'n uitstekende herontdekking.
In hierdie drie kortverhale beeld James Baldwin die lewe van Afro-Amerikaners in New York in die dekades ná die Tweede Wêreldoorlog uit met deernis en skerp waarneming. Sy karakters is van vlees en bloed en lewe hul klein lewens met passie. Dis veral die uitbeelding van Apartheid-Amerika wat ontstel. Baldwin is 'n uiters belangrike skrywerstem uit die Amerikaanse letterkunde en vir my 'n uitstekende herontdekking.
May 29, 2017
Sonny's Blues is a short story about manhood, brotherhood, music, freedom, drugs, dreams and fantasies, and their crossing with the reality. It is about the limitations and prejudgements of society: it is hard, nearly impossible, to pursue dreams.
"I think people ought to do what they want to do, what else are they alive for?"
Sonny follows his dream — a dream to become a piano player. Why on earth it should be bad? Why it should cause so many worries to his family? This is complicated question to ask. A man does a lot of sacrifices in order to achieve this sacred dream. When life hits too strong, he searches for redemption... in drugs. Where people cannot confide in each other and find consolation, drugs take up this task — they put human life in order. Yet desperation does not end. And a person takes another dose of drugs so as to die trying to escape... or — music, is that you?
A sad story. You will not find action or adventurous events, but the words which describe miserable human lives.
As it says in story, there is no way not to suffer...
"I think people ought to do what they want to do, what else are they alive for?"
Sonny follows his dream — a dream to become a piano player. Why on earth it should be bad? Why it should cause so many worries to his family? This is complicated question to ask. A man does a lot of sacrifices in order to achieve this sacred dream. When life hits too strong, he searches for redemption... in drugs. Where people cannot confide in each other and find consolation, drugs take up this task — they put human life in order. Yet desperation does not end. And a person takes another dose of drugs so as to die trying to escape... or — music, is that you?
A sad story. You will not find action or adventurous events, but the words which describe miserable human lives.
As it says in story, there is no way not to suffer...
December 15, 2022
—then they all gathered around sonny and sonny played. every now and again one of them seemed to say, amen. sonny’s fingers filled the air with life, his life. but that life contained so many others. and sonny went all the way back, he really began with the spare, flat statement of the opening phrase of the song. then he began to make it his. it was very beautiful because it wasn’t hurried and it was no longer a lament. i seemed to hear with what burning he had made it his, and what burning we had yet to make it ours, how we could cease lamenting. freedom lurked around us and i understood, at last, that he could help us to be free if we would listen, that he would never be free until we did.
baldwin once again write so beautifully & reflects and captures the world (specifically with regards to race, relationships, and music) so realistically it's both impressive and captivating and so effective
baldwin once again write so beautifully & reflects and captures the world (specifically with regards to race, relationships, and music) so realistically it's both impressive and captivating and so effective
July 2, 2023
اسم الكتاب :أحزان سوني.
الكاتب : جيمس بالدوين.
عدد الصفحات :125.
-------------------------------------
هو عبارة عن قصتين تتحدث عمن معاناة الزنوج سابقا َكيف كانت تتم التفرقة بينهم وبين البيضأي العنصرية ، وعن التعنيف النفسي الذي تعرضوا له وكيف أنه هذا الشيء أثر على مستقبلهم.
لم تروق لي الترجمة ولم تعجبني طريقة السرد والعرض مع أنها مشكلة عميقة مؤثرة.
كما أنه جذبني اسم الكتاب '' أحزان سوني '' توقعت أن يكون مؤثرا بشكل أكبر.
نجمة من خمس نجمات.
#أصبوحة_180 #دار_المعرفة_للنشر_والتوزيع #كتب #مراجعات #اقتباسات #أيمن_العتوم #أحلام_مستغانمي #رمضان #غزة_تقاوم #عمرو_عبد_المجيد #أمة_اقرأ #خالد_حسيني
#روايات_مترجمة #حب
#وفاء #أحلام_مستغانمي#دانيال_ستيل
#قرآن #تفسير
#books #read #agathachristie #mayadabooks
#دانيال_ستيل #الزفاف
#ياسمين_أبيض
#خولة_حمدي
#عمان #الزرقاء
#أحزان_سوني
الكاتب : جيمس بالدوين.
عدد الصفحات :125.
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هو عبارة عن قصتين تتحدث عمن معاناة الزنوج سابقا َكيف كانت تتم التفرقة بينهم وبين البيضأي العنصرية ، وعن التعنيف النفسي الذي تعرضوا له وكيف أنه هذا الشيء أثر على مستقبلهم.
لم تروق لي الترجمة ولم تعجبني طريقة السرد والعرض مع أنها مشكلة عميقة مؤثرة.
كما أنه جذبني اسم الكتاب '' أحزان سوني '' توقعت أن يكون مؤثرا بشكل أكبر.
نجمة من خمس نجمات.
#أصبوحة_180 #دار_المعرفة_للنشر_والتوزيع #كتب #مراجعات #اقتباسات #أيمن_العتوم #أحلام_مستغانمي #رمضان #غزة_تقاوم #عمرو_عبد_المجيد #أمة_اقرأ #خالد_حسيني
#روايات_مترجمة #حب
#وفاء #أحلام_مستغانمي#دانيال_ستيل
#قرآن #تفسير
#books #read #agathachristie #mayadabooks
#دانيال_ستيل #الزفاف
#ياسمين_أبيض
#خولة_حمدي
#عمان #الزرقاء
#أحزان_سوني
October 2, 2014
Sonny's Blues is the main attraction in this tiny collection. It is about two brothers in Harlem, a school teacher and a heroin addicted jazz pianist, Sonny. It's 52 pages long and pretty much flawless. The pace, the language, the cool, matter-of-fact everyday prose- as if a very close person confiding, and just as serious -almost everything works to justify the story's reputation as one of the very best in modern American literature. The other two stories are excellent as well. You could also indulge your (not so) inner hipster too and put some Charlie Parker on and, thus, maximize your super American Masters dinner for nothing. Yay.
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