If Beale Street Could Talk: James Baldwin (Penguin Modern Classics)

Product Information

Because I knew Fonny was going to be in jail and Tish was going to be pregnant, I made a list of books I wanted to read after I read Baldwin's If Beale Street Could Talk. These books explore how excessive incarceration and anti-choice regulations work together to promote the subjugation of women and people of color. Thompson, Anne (October 10, 2018). "Annapurna's Stunning Shakeup: What the Hell Is Megan Ellison Doing?". IndieWire . Retrieved October 10, 2018.

This is a tale of two families. Tish’s family is not only supportive of the relationship but go so far as to consider Fonny part of their family. As Tish and Fonny are caught up in the whirlwind of 1970s racist New York, the support of Tish’s family is the only thing standing between Fonny spending a good part of his life in jail and Tish having to work the streets to make enough money to afford a lawyer for his defense. James Baldwin paints a bleak picture of racism and injustice - a cry against the establishment and attitudes of 1970’s America.sense, smaller human unity will become more and more important. Those who are without them, like Fonny's friend Daniel, will probably not survive. Certainly they will not reproduce themselves. Fonny's real crime is "having Tish is 19 and pregnant - her partner Fonny is a couple of years older and in prison, falsely accused of rape. Tish’s family are close and supportive. Fonny’s are stiff and judgemental. Sharon agrees to go to Puerto Rico, and when she finally manages to find Mrs. Rogers, she tries to appeal to the woman’s motherly love, since Rogers is a mother herself. To do this, she shows Mrs. Rogers a picture of Fonny and Tish, explaining that Tish is her daughter and that she’s going to have Fonny’s baby. Unfortunately, though, talking about this only dredges up Mrs. Rogers’s trauma, and she starts screaming. Shortly thereafter, she disappears once again—this time for good—and Sharon is forced to return to the United States in defeat. their being so politically helpless seems to have strengthened, in Baldwin's imagination at least, the deep, powerful bonds of emotion between them. "If Beale Street Could Talk" is a quite moving and very traditional celebration Tish moves into a recollection about how Mrs. Hunt forced Fonny to go to church every Sunday because she was determined to save Fonny's soul. In retrospect, Tish reveals that she thinks all the church visits of his childhood is what made Fonny the rebel he is. Tish believes that once you get to know him, Fonny is actually a very sweet man. She also meditates on Frank's relationship with his son, as they are closest to each other in the Hunt family. She uses parallelism to show how similar they are and how it translates into their love for her.

Nineteen-year-old Tish visits Fonny, who’s imprisoned in “the Tombs” in Lower Manhattan. Through a glass divider, she tells Fonny she’s pregnant with his child. “Did you tell Frank?” he asks, referring to his father, and Tish tells him she hasn’t told anyone but him. Although he’s overjoyed, he suddenly becomes serious and asks what she’s “going to do” about this, and she assures him everything will work out, insisting that he’ll be out of prison by the time she gives birth. “You sure about that?” he asks. Tish moves on to discuss speaking in tongues or being possessed by the Holy Ghost at this church, wondering if it will happen today. She notes that this doesn't often happen in her church, because they are more "respectable" and "civilized" than the Sanctified church. When they enter the church, the congregation's heads turn to watch them. Tish notes that she does not remember what color Mrs. Hunt's dress was anymore, but that it stands out in the darkness of the church. The way that Mrs. Hunt enters the church affects Tish: "She was saved the moment she entered the church, she was Sanctified holy, and I even remember until today how much she made me tremble, all of a sudden, deep inside" (24). Mrs. Hunt marches Tish and Fonny to the front and center pew and they all sit down. I guess it can't be too often that two people can laugh and make love, too, make love because they are laughing, laugh because they're making love. The love and the laughter come from the place: but not many people go there.

Check-In

Childhood friends, Tish and Fonny (Alonzo) have fallen in love and are building a life together. With meagre income and youthful naivety this is never going to be easy. Americans’ idea of Baldwin is often limited to this decade—the 1960s—perhaps because no other U.S. writer embodies that period better than he does. Although he had published an impressive set of works in the ’50s, it was the release of the novel Another Country (1962) and the two essays that make up The Fire Next Time (1963) that solidified his reputation as one of America’s preeminent writers and public intellectuals. In these civil-rights-era works, Baldwin was keen on interrogating white power and championing love to realize the full promise of America. If Beale Street Could Talk by James Baldwin is a an angry and sometimes brutal love story set in the Bronx, New York.