A newsletter for the students, faculty and staff of the Collin County Community College District. Published monthly. For information or submissions, call 972.599.3142. Cougar News welcomes student and faculty submissions. Next deadline: July 10 All submissions are due by 5 p.m. on the due date. Photos cannot be returned. Text should be emailed to mrobinson@ccccd.edu or sent on disk. Please submit copy that is proofed, edited and saved in Word format. Cougar News staff: Lisa Vasquez, director; Mark Robinson, editor; Marcy Cadena-Smith, contributor; Shawn Stewart, special contributor; Cody Lynch, special contributor; Dr. John Glass, special contributor; Amy Lenhart, special contributor; layout and photography by Nick Young.
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Book Review -- James Baldwin
When James Baldwin – America’s emminent African American writer – published “Go Tell It On The Mountain” in 1953, he probably didn’t know it would resonate so loudly.
Of course, that is the benchmark of greatness – when something gains relevancy through time.
“Go Tell It On The Mountain” is an autobiographical novel on Baldwin’s own familial and spiritual environment when he was 14.
Given the name John Grimes, the Baldwin character struggles with his worldly wants and homosexual tendencies among a family and community that equates anything not associated with Jesus and God to be sinful.
Baldwin uses the religious themes to not only sketch the state of mind of African American culture in the early 20th century, but to also expose the hypocrisy and moral righteousness keeping many in shackles. The fine line between fundamentalism and fanaticism can be as blurry as it was then and is now.
Elisha and Ella Mae, two young parishioners of John’s Harlem church are brought before the congregation for taking walks and holding hands.
This standard to which John and his brother Royal fail to reach is set by their evangelist father, Gabriel, who before embracing religion, found solace in drinking and members of the opposite sex.
Although God forgives of one’s transgressions, human memories rarely forget, and that’s the crux of Baldwin’s novel. Most of the story is based on Gabriel, his sister Florence and his wife Elizabeth and the trepidations they faced in their younger days.
Gabriel’s hypocrisy and woeful past never really leave him be, despite his faith.
“‘Like my aunt used to say,”’ Elizabeth said, smiling timidly, “‘she used to say, folks sure better not do in the dark what they’s scared to look at in the light’,” Baldwin wrote.
Baldwin’s strength is his characters and strong command of a refreshing narrative that penciled in the character’s tormented souls, undying pasts and unrelenting fears. The strongest caricatures are Baldwin’s women: Florence, Elizabeth, Deborah, Praying Mother Washington, Sister McCandless and Sister Price. Beautifully strong woman who prove to be the true protangonists – spiritually righteous, right and compassionate, the women prove to be the men’s backbone and the moral compasses which the men too often ignore.
Baldwin tackled race, religion and sexual orientation with little regard to the suburban mentality affecting the United States in the 1950s all the while teaching a lesson that can be of great consequence today.
 Five out of five paws.
[PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION]
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