The Fire Next Time

Short Review: Like many books I need to read this again. I listened to it on audiobook (by far cheapest option) in a single sitting after reading When We Were Eight Years in Power and realizing that Ta-Nehesis Coates consciously modeled his Between the World and Me on this book.

The first short essay in The Fire Next Time was a letter addressed to Baldwin's nephew on the 100th anniversary of the emancipation proclamation. But it was the much longer essay that revolved around Baldwin's relationship to faith and how various faiths related to anti-racism. His early status as a ‘boy preacher' Baldwin thinks saved him from drugs or crime or other things that would have derailed his life and allowed him to become a writer. But he grew out of Christian faith because of its inability to actually believe and do its own message. He moved on to Nation of Islam and a consciously black power message that from a different place also was unable to solve the problem of racism and discrimination.

This is worth reading in part because it is clearly dated, but also still so very relevant. My full review is on my blog at http://bookwi.se/fire-next-time/