Why read Just Above My Head?

Book cover of Just Above My Head

Book description

James Baldwin’s final novel is “the work of a born storyteller at the height of his powers” (The New York Times Book Review).

“Not everything is lost. Responsibility cannot be lost, it can only be abdicated. If one refuses abdication, one begins again.”

The stark grief of a brother mourning…

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Why read it?

1 author picked Just Above My Head as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Douglas Field

Author

I remember feeling exhausted the first time I finished reading Baldwin’s last novel. In common with many novels published during the late 1970s, this is a saga, a sprawling account of interlocking families and characters across thirty years. It takes the reader to the US, South, London, Korea, Paris, and Africa. It is also a pioneering book that describes an intense sexual relationship between African American men.

As I’ve read Baldwin over the last twenty-plus years, I’ve relished seeing patterns and themes that cut across his work. One of his earliest essays, “Journey to Atlanta,” published in 1948, is an…

From Douglas' list on lesser-known books by James Baldwin.