Go Tell It on the Mountain (alkuperäinen julkaisuvuosi 1953; vuoden 2016 painos)

I have very mixed emotions about the religion in this novel. it makes for a very powerful story, but organized religion and the hold it has on people makes me angry. Gabriel is a violent, angry and hypocritical preacher. The threat of what he might do to John at the end and the fact that we'll never know truly irritates me. Everyone in this story except for Roy are worried about the effects of their sins. Since I don't believe in hell or any kind of eternal punishment, I can't relate to that. They are living with the effects of bad decisions already, and they don't think that's the end of it. So my take is that it is a powerful story of bad choices and their consequences. But I could do without all the religious part which must be there to make the novel what it is. ( )

This one really just didn't click for me. ( )

I ended up listening to an audio version of this book.
I used to be familiar with religion, but nothing really prepared me for this book. It felt like one unrelenting prayer, praise for living according to God's word. On the other hand the characters in the book were not really free of sin. And the ease they said I've been forgiven and go on with their lives felt uneasy, undeserved.
I don't understand things work that way. ( )

A fascinating intersection of race, family, faith, and sexuality. Baldwin's prose is image-driven and vivid, if a bit abstract. ( )

My introduction to James Baldwin was Giovanni's Room, and like so many I could not think of enough superlatives to describe the novel and my reading experience. Go Tell It on the Mountain is equally deserving in some respects. The prose is wonderful. The characters are vivid and the emotion in the writing and the characters leaves you drained. But with Go Tell It on the Mountain I was angry more than anything else. I wanted to yell, See, this is what I don't like about religion. Here are people holding themselves up above others because of what they believe and telling others how they need to behave (meaning Gabriel), when in fact they are terrible examples for the rest of us to follow. And then there are others, John and Elizabeth, that deserve compassion and respect, but don't get it.

I am sure other readers will tell me that this is how I was meant to feel, the novel achieved its goal. They would be right, but that didn't make it a great experience for me. The religious fervor and transformation scenes left me cold and distracted. Afterwards I was forced to reconnect with the story and the characters, so that when the novel was over, I didn't feel that I had travelled very far with them. I didn't feel a strong connection. ( )