Reviews tagging 'Drug use'

Another Country by James Baldwin

7 reviews

pupaebug's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This is my fourth James Baldwin novel. I have been in love with his writing style for a while now. Baldwin captures intimacy and the human condition with so much complexity and tenderness, and in a way that makes reading from other writers just absolutely pale in comparison. 

This book is the Baldwin novel I felt most excited to read since Giovanni's room. This novel was really slow at first. It took me a while to become interested in the large cast of characters, and the somewhat nonlinear narrative at the beginning of the book. 

However, after the third act, when Eric came back to NYC, I couldn't put the book down. This book felt so ahead of its time in its discussion of the nuances of race and sexuality in intimate relationships. Every single character was struggling with something, and every single character had made mistakes and done things that hurt other people, but I loved and I understood all of them. Baldwin does an incredible job of giving his characters such humanity and depth. 

I also loved the way that this book started slowly, then everything began to simmer until the tension between the characters became so unbearable that everything came out at a climax toward the end of the book. At the beginning, when I felt I was being introduced to the characters and their intricacies and relationships with one another, I could put the book down and not think about it for a while. But once shit hit the fan per say, I needed to consume every word on the page, insatiably. It was an unexpectedly riveting story.

Anyway, I loved this book and these characters. This was a beautiful story of Blackness, Whiteness, masculinity, bisexuality,

infidelity

, and love, and it was a deeply touching look at humanity through these complicated and messed-up people.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Death, Infidelity, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Rape, Racism, Grief, and Homophobia

Minor: Drug use

mayze's review

challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Cursing, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Biphobia, Classism, Death, Drug use, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexism, Suicide, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Racial slurs, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Hate crime, Sexual content, Grief, Homophobia, Racism, Rape, Alcohol, Forced institutionalization, and Physical abuse

Another amazing book by James Baldwin. Another Country tells the story of a social circle of NYC bohemians in the 1950s. Rufus a black jazz musician, Vivaldo an Irish-Italian write, Cass a wealthy liberal housewife, Ida a singer and Rufus' younger sister and Eric, an actor who just returned from some time off in France. While reading this book it's easy to understand why it's held in such high regard. The gripping writing and its clever way to interweaving different themes (racism, sexism, homosexuality/bissexuality) was decades ahead of its time and still does it better than the average book who tries to connect themes today. The characters were well written, they all have clear faults (some of them heinous) and even though none of them were overall likeable, I didn't find them particularly unlikeable either. They just felt like three-dimensional characters were the complexity and themes of the plot make some of their actions understandable from their POV. As usual, Baldwin's descriptions of NYC are very effective, you can easily picture Seventh Avenue, the dive bars the characters are fond of, coast towns in Southern France, and even how chaotic and smelly the characters' living quarters are. I highly recommend this, it's very uncomfortable at times but I feel that readers can learn a lot from it and easily put themselves in the characters' shoes even if they don't necessarily agree with their actions.

williamgideon's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

"Strangers' faces hold no secrets because the imagination does not invest them with any. But the face of a lover is an unknown precisely because it is invested with so much of oneself. It is a mystery, containing, like all mysteries, the possibility of torment."

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Suicide, Infidelity, Drug use, Racism, Racial slurs, Homophobia, Domestic abuse, Violence, and Sexual assault

slayalicious's review

challenging dark informative reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

The book is meant for a certain type of person who loves literature and can withstand the boring parts and long chapters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Cursing, Toxic friendship, Drug use, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Toxic relationship, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Violence, Death, Homophobia, Racial slurs, Racism, Sexism, Gaslighting, Sexual content, and Grief

signeskov's review against another edition

dark reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

‘“Pray? Who, pray? I bet you, if I ever get anywhere near that white devil you call God, I’ll tear my son and my father out of his white hide! Don’t you ever say the word Pray to me again, woman, not if you want to live.”’

This novel is not for the easy-hearted, its main themes being racism and human estrangement. Sex, misogyny, toxic masculinity, and violence is the interwoven fabric of the story, and the characters are one big, unlikeable mass of suffering. Often, these elements of the book disgusted me or provoked some pretty heavy reactions in me. Despite Baldwin’s identity as a black gay man, one must announce that the book is still a product of its time - though this of course also adds to the historical depiction of racism and patriarchy, which definitely interested me. Finally, this is a novel that doesn’t say a whole lot as you’re sitting with it, but only truly revealed itself to me as I finished it and had left it to brew for some days.

What brings this novel up from a pretty standard 4 rating to a 4.25 is Baldwin’s writing. It is simply put immaculate, constantly blending love and hate into shattering contrasts of existential crisis, human loneliness, and, of course, racism. It is forceful, violent, and at once beautiful - and is sure to stay with its reader for a while as a literary shot of refreshment to the brain.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Racism, Sexism, Suicide, and Domestic abuse

Moderate: Drug use, Homophobia, and Alcohol

camimonae's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

JB knows how to write a tortured love story and sensual, yet not explicit sex/intimate scenes. 
I couldn't find much to love about this story except for the way JB delves into the realism of life experiences. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Racism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Cursing, Drug use, Infidelity, and Physical abuse

whatisrubyreading's review

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Racial slurs, Racism, Rape, Sexual violence, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, and Violence