The Fire Next Time
Book Review
The Fire Next Time consists of two essays by Baldwin, the first being fairly short and the second being much longer. His first essay to his nephew was easier for me to digest and understand. The second essay was much longer and felt like an unstoppable barrage of prose and ideas. There were a lot of moments where I felt like I wasn’t truly comprehending the meaning behind his words…so if I have the time and motivation, I would try to read this again.
The first time I was introduced to James Baldwin was by watching him speak on old TV interview recordings. His voice is captivating and has a quality about it that seems to suck you in. Reading The Fire Next Time was the first time I read his words instead of listening to him. As a reader, I could also get a sense of Baldwin's larger than life character, as his prose is incredibly elegant and demanding at the same time. Having heard a lot of the 21st century discourse on Black Lives Matter, a lot of the ideas he gets across felt very familiar. His words still inspire the generations today fighting for change. For instance, one “truth” that really sticks out is how black people often come to a realization early in life that they will never (and therefore should not strive to) rise to an economic status above their fathers/grandfathers because they are in a system that does not want them to rise.
What really affected me the most, and what the majority of this book is about, was taking a look into Baldwin’s thoughts about religion and the Nation of Islam. I never really studied the Bible, so I admit I got a bit lost at times, but I think that Baldwin does a really good job explaining what black nationalism is, and why he doesn't agree with it. But he also understands why people do believe in it. I felt like I was finally getting re-educated on what the Black Panthers stood for, even though this book discussed Elijah Muhammad and not Malcolm X. I remember always tying some negative connotation to the Black Panthers when I learned about them in grade school, because they were the group that advocated for violence while Martin Luther King Jr. was the man that advocated for peace. But to take that at face value is problematic, because accepting the Black Panthers as just a “violent” group is to look down on them and try to reject them, just like how society has looked down on black people all their lives. I feel that Baldwin does a really good job at both disagreeing with and defending the ideas of the Nation of Islam with grace and dignity, for the purpose of educating others.
In conclusion…
Overall, I really admire Baldwin's writing ability, and felt like I could hear his lilting voice reading it to me in my head. Even though I did get lost at times, I did not want to take my eyes off of the page and kept reading until the end. It’s almost as if he’s daring me to take my eyes off the page, because if I did, I would miss something extremely pivotal and important.