This book is beautiful and sad and infuriating, especially in that it is still so relevant 50 years after it was written. It was a hard book to read at times but so well-done and worth it. I was hooked on the story of 19-year-old Tish, who is pregnant and engaged to Fonny—who is in jail awaiting trial for a violent crime he didn’t commit.
As one might expect from Baldwin, there is a lot of focus on racism, sexism, and racial injustice, especially within the law enforcement and criminal justice systems. I was stunned and so angry when I realized who had helped put Fonny in jail and why. But there’s also so much focus on love. There’s certainly a deep and abiding love between Tish and Fonny, but the immense love and support within Tish’s family and between Fonny and his father Frank are so affecting. There are a number of compelling quotes about all of the themes in this novel, and especially love. One that struck me the most is when Tish is comparing how Fonny makes love to how he sculpts, which she knows is his passion: “He worked on wood that way. He worked on stone that way. If I had never seen him work, I might never have known he loved me.” I was also struck by how openly emotional some of the men were allowed to be with other men in this book, in particular Frank and Fonny’s friend Daniel.
Baldwin makes some interesting narrative choices. Although the story is told from Tish’s POV, there are times that Baldwin blurs the line between her voice and his, such as in a particularly abstract passage about how men and women relate to each other. Tish is observant and introspective, and that passage still flowed well, but it seemed in some ways more philosophical than Tish typically is, almost reading like a short essay. There are also times when Baldwin veers toward 3rd person omniscient but through the lens of Tish, where she isn’t likely to know what is happening but the information needs to be conveyed, so it’s like she is filling in narrative gaps in a believable but unprovable way. Baldwin’s use of punctuation is also unexpected and nontraditional at times and could be jarring, though this does sometimes add a layer of meaning.
Baldwin does an excellent job of balancing injustice and hope and showcasing love between characters. This was a beautifully-written, emotional novel that I would recommend to anyone who is looking to diversify their reading, wants to try out James Baldwin, or loves language.