Play Book Tag discussion

I have always loved James Baldwin as an intellectual and literary figure. He was unabashedly himself, would speak his mind, not one to mince words, the type to not have time for the bullshit, fearless, and just a generally cool guy. But I had never read his work.

If Beale Street Could Talk is not what I imagined a Baldwin book would be. I expected the type of world-weariness that you could expect from someone questioning the society they live in, but in fact this was a sweet romance story. Baldwin is realistic in his portrayal of the conflict the couple, Tish and Fonny, and also their families face as Black people living in America, however at the same time it is a beautiful portrayal of young love. While Fonny has some family conflicts, he is accepted by Tish's family which is shows another type of love, the unconditional and supportive love of family.

This love is able to thrive in what Baldwin's Tish describes as "the ugliest and the dirtiest city in the world. It must have the ugliest buildings and the nastiest people. It's got to have the worst cops. If any place is worse, it's got to be so close to hell that you can smell the people frying."

Despite this, Tish and Fonny are almost always upbeat and hopeful, as is Fonny's family. And the family believes in their love, and their lives together even though they are still so young (Tish is 18 and Fonny 21 I think when they get serious).

Tish and Fonny face a major conflict as a couple which is pretty disheartening because they have almost everything going their way.

I'm not much for romance and this is mostly a romance, but I think Baldwin's point was to show how beautiful Black love can be and he did. Maybe he was getting sentimental in his later years (this was published in 1974 when he was 50). I'll have to read his earlier work to find out if that is the case.

Baldwin is a talented writer, no doubt, so I would recommend to fans working their way through his cannon or for people looking for a short romance but are prepared to experience some vicarious trauma.

Beautifully written and well stated review. It was every single piece of what you described, So glad to have read it in the same week as you.

Thank you, Amy! I was so glad to see we both read this and rated the same :)

I also want to mention that this book is a very true description of NYC at that time. I arrived here in 1973, and I recognized so much of the City from then in that book.

That's a cool connection!

Great review for a great book!

Great review Meli. I just finished this. I agree that it wasn't as bleak as I expected it to be. The only other book I read of his was Another Country.

Meli or Amy, do you still have the book? I only have the audio, and I didn't understood the last line or so. Can you send me a direct message with your understanding of the ending? (view spoiler)[ Where were they? When was it? Was it real or a dream (hide spoiler)]

Yes, I'll shoot you a DM later.

Mine was a library book, so I’m so glad that Meli has it.

Here is the last line of the book that confused me in the audio narration:

“Oct. 12, 1973, St. Paul de Vence.”

I did a little research and discovered that he often signs off the end of a book with the current date and location. I thought maybe it meant that Fonny skipped bail and they ran off to France.

Oh yeah, I missed that! That is in my paper copy.

So that is just Baldwin's sign off then?

Meli wrote: "Oh yeah, I missed that! That is in my paper copy.

So that is just Baldwin's sign off then?"

I don't know if he did it all the time, but he did it enough to be noticed by reviewers. In one he wrote: “New York, Istanbul, San Francisco, 1965-1967. Some people rely on passport stamps to remind them of where they've been, he has his books.

BTW I had a more positive interpretation of the ending than you did. I've come to like ambiguous endings more than I used to. From what I read, the movie's ending is different, and still ambiguous on some points. (It changed the story about Fonny's father too.)

NancyJ wrote: "Meli wrote: "Oh yeah, I missed that! That is in my paper copy.

So that is just Baldwin's sign off then?"

I don't know if he did it all the time, but he did it enough to be noticed by reviewers. ..."

My interpretation of the ending was positive ... (view spoiler)[I thought perhaps she was hallucinating like a death (just a thought, not my ending), but I choose to believe they live happily ever after (hide spoiler)]

I love an ambiguous ending in books and movies. A lot of people don't but I've always loved being able to decide for myself.