The Fire This Time - Hardcover

Kenan, Randall

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1933633247 ISBN 13: 9781933633244

Publisher: Melville House Pub, 2007

Synopsis

James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time was one of the essential books of the sixties, and one of the most galvanizing statements of the American civil rights movement.

Now, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, with a new generation of Americans confronting what Baldwin called our "racial nightmare," acclaimed writer Randall Kenan asks: How far have we come?

Combining elements of memoir and commentary, Kenan’s critical eye ranges from his childhood to the present to observe that, while there have been dramatic advances, some old issues have combined with new ones to bedevil us: “Nigger” has become a hip usage; the African-Americans that have finally attained prominent political positions are, more often than not, arch-conservatives; the Christian and Muslim religions so central to the civil rights movement have become more intolerant, while the stirring spiritual music that inspired it has been replaced by an aggressive form of hip-hop.

Starting with W. E. B. Du Bois and Martin Luther King, Jr., Kenan expands the discussion to include many of today’s most powerful personalities, such as Oprah Winfrey, O. J. Simpson, Clarence Thomas, Rodney King, Sean “Puffy” Combs, George Foreman, and Barack Obama.

Published to mark the forty-fifth anniversary of James Baldwin’s epochal work, this homage by novelist, essayist, and Baldwin biographer Kenan is itself a piercing consideration of the times, and an impassioned call to transcend them.

About this title

Product Description:

Rare Book

Review:

'Kenan demands attention.' The Observer'Kenan continues Baldwin's legendary tradition of 'telling it on the mountain'.' San Francisco Chronicle'An intelligent homage to James Baldwin's celebrated 1963 The Fire Next Time, and in important book in its own right ... a perfect catalyst for lively discussion, and a fine state-of-the-issues update on Baldwin's 45-year-old touchstone.' Publishers Weekly'A terrific homage to James Baldwin's great essay.' The Boston Phoenix'A rousing wake-up call. He [has] a grasp of how blackness is glimpsed today, from the spectacle of "the black male" to the marketing triumph of hip-hop, to the age-old trickster figures such as Brer Rabbit whom he says point the way out of some of the most enduring quagmires: improvisation.' The Star-Ledger'Insightful, taut, elegantly written ... One cannot read this book without coming away with feelings of hope. We may continue to stumble at times in what Wynton Marsalis has called this dance we've been doing since the founding of the republic. But reading Randall Kenan, one knows somehow that the dance is worth each step.' The Herald-Sun

About this edition

• Publisher: Melville House Pub
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 1933633247
• ISBN 13: 9781933633244
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 149