Staff Pick
After a celebrated actor suffers a heart attack on stage, he reflects back on his queer becoming in the theater and on the streets of 1940s Harlem. Leo recalls his early days in the Greenwich Village art scene, coming into the orbit of aspiring actress Barbara, a white woman. Their complicated love affair opens for Leo the doors to a world of artistic freedom — and racist restrictions — he had hardly imagined. This lesser-read Baldwin has all his signature interrogations of blackness and sexuality, but it also offers peerless meditations on the creative process and young creative ambition. It is somehow equal parts devastating and inspiring. Recommended By Thomas L., Powells.com
Synopses & Reviews
At the height of his theatrical career, the actor Leo Proudhammer is nearly felled by a heart attack. As he hovers between life and death, Baldwin shows the choices that have made him enviably famous and terrifyingly vulnerable.
For between Leo's childhood on the streets of Harlem and his arrival into the intoxicating world of the theater lies a wilderness of desire and loss, shame and rage. An adored older brother vanishes into prison. There are love affairs with a white woman and a younger black man, each of whom will make irresistible claims on Leo's loyalty. And everywhere there is the anguish of being black in a society that at times seems poised on the brink of total racial war. Overpowering in its vitality, extravagant in the intensity of its feeling, Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone is a major work of American literature.
Synopsis
A major work of American literature that powerfully portrays the anguish of being Black in a society that at times seems poised on the brink of total racial war. At the height of his theatrical career, the actor Leo Proudhammer is nearly felled by a heart attack. As he hovers between life and death, Baldwin shows the choices that have made him enviably famous and terrifyingly vulnerable.
For between Leo's childhood on the streets of Harlem and his arrival into the intoxicating world of the theater lies a wilderness of desire and loss, shame and rage. An adored older brother vanishes into prison. There are love affairs with a white woman and a younger black man, each of whom will make irresistible claims on Leo's loyalty.
Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone is overpowering in its vitality and extravagant in the intensity of its feeling.
Synopsis
A major work of American literature from a major American writer that powerfully portrays the anguish of being Black in a society that at times seems poised on the brink of total racial war. "Baldwin is one of the few genuinely indispensable American writers." --Saturday Review
At the height of his theatrical career, the actor Leo Proudhammer is nearly felled by a heart attack. As he hovers between life and death, Baldwin shows the choices that have made him enviably famous and terrifyingly vulnerable.
For between Leo's childhood on the streets of Harlem and his arrival into the intoxicating world of the theater lies a wilderness of desire and loss, shame and rage. An adored older brother vanishes into prison. There are love affairs with a white woman and a younger black man, each of whom will make irresistible claims on Leo's loyalty.
Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone is overpowering in its vitality and extravagant in the intensity of its feeling.