Go Tell It on the Mountain by James Baldwin

In continuing to work on my Classics Club novels, I picked up James Baldwin's Go Tell It on the Mountain a few weeks ago. There wasn't a special reason behind me placing this book on my list, it's just one of those books that is so well known and well regarded that I knew I wanted to get to it eventually. As it's on the shorter side, I figured it might be a good one to pick up and read now; school was just about to start for the year, so I didn't have the time or emotional energy to dedicate to a long, dense classic.

The plot centers around John Grimes, a fourteen-year-old African American boy living in Harlem in the 1930s. His father, Gabriel Grimes, is a Pentecostal minister in a storefront church there, and his upbringing, accordingly, has been intensely religious. While he goes through the motions of attending church and participating in its rituals, John feels a lot of inner conflict towards his religion. He is grappling with some unnamed sins he feels like he has committed and is troubled by the hypocrisies he sees within his church, especially where his father is concerned. As a religious leader in the community, Gabriel Grimes is revered by the churchgoing public. At home however, his behavior is monstrous and violent towards his family. John seems to be the special focus of much of his father's hatred. He isn't exactly sure why, but he supposes it's due to his lack of "manliness."

The entire novel consists of a single Saturday night in Gabriel's Harlem church. Several members of the Grimes family are present to pray and sing, and each chapter focuses on a different person as they mull over their lives. Their stories focus on the sins of their pasts and their complicated relationships with their religion. Some, like Gabriel, are tortured by the past mistakes of his wayward youth, while others, like John's aunt Florence, muse on past tragedies, regrets, and injustices. Throughout all of these extended recollections, deep family secrets are revealed, and a picture begins to emerge of why John suffers so much conflict and uncertainty in his life.

Go Tell It on the Mountain is a semi-autobiographical novel. James Baldwin experienced quite a similar childhood to John Grimes, and his emotional connection to the subject matter is clear throughout the text. The story is masterfully constructed, and I was consistently impressed with the beauty of Baldwin's writing. The characters' questions and doubts about their religion, their relationships, and themselves felt realistic and genuine. This novel clearly deserves it's status as a classic of American literature.

That being said, however, I didn't particularly enjoy my reading experience. Go Tell It on the Mountain is a deeply religious work. Much of the language is pulled directly from the Bible, and several of the characters' experiences within it are meant to mirror different biblical events. As a non-religious person, I was unable to catch most of these references, and wasn't emotionally invested in the characters' struggles. I think that people with an interest in Christianity and a background of attending church will deeply appreciate this story. I was unable to connect with it.

This issue was the most prevalent in the final section of the book, when John undergoes a hallucinatory religious experience that leads to a kind of spiritual awakening. This part of the story felt long and confusing to me. Hallucination sequences in books aren't something I particularly enjoy at the best of times, and I wasn't able to sort out the religious symbolism that this one heavily relied upon. The novel ends soon after this experience, without much satisfying resolution for the characters (at least in my mind). I was looking for more of a narrative in this novel, and that's not what Go Tell It on the Mountain is. This is more of a mental journey for several characters, rather than a typical novel with one single story.

This is another one of those cases when I feel bad for disliking what is clearly an important and celebrated classic in the literary cannon. I do appreciate it for what it is, and I acknowledge that James Baldwin is a phenomenal writer, but I also recognize that this isn't the kind of novel that I personally enjoy. I am glad that I experienced it once, as every classic I read builds up my knowledge of literature a little bit more, but this isn't book I will be remembering as a favorite.


Challenge Tally
Classics Club (#14 on my list): 53/100 

Total Books Read in 2019: 60