Review by Booklist Review
Literary giant James Baldwin was a transformative voice for Black liberation throughout his long and varied life, and his essay collections, including The Fire Next Time, remain powerful explorations of American racism and African American calls for accountability. Yet many admirers of Baldwin prefer to downplay or even camouflage his homoerotic writings, particularly in the novels Giovanni's Room and Another Country. In this comprehensive, emotional biography, Boggs positions Baldwin's romantic history squarely at the center of his literary and political work, chronicling the parallel developments in Baldwn's art and in his relationships. A perennial outsider due to both his race and his queerness, Baldwin sought acceptance in France, where his love affairs with European artists Lucien Happersberger and Yoran Cazac inspired some of his greatest work, and his mentor, painter Beauford Delaney, helped him grasp the fundamental connection between racism and homophobia. These relationships gave Baldwin the confidence to write Go Tell It on the Mountain, a novel set in Harlem but written at the snowy alpine retreat Baldwin shared with Happersberger. Based on extensive interviews with many Baldwin associates and family members, this is an emotionally rich and complex look at a writer who exemplifies the impossibility of separating the personal from the political.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
The life of James Baldwin (1924--1987) is told through four of his intimate relationships in the standout debut biography from independent scholar Boggs. The account begins with Beauford Delaney, a Harlem painter who in the 1940s taught the young writer "to see the beauty of the world around him, and to begin to see it within himself" and encouraged Baldwin's 1948 move to Paris, where he met Lucien Happersberger, whom Baldwin called "the love of my life." Happersberger inspired and facilitated Baldwin's writing, particularly the novel Giovanni's Room, giving Baldwin use of his family house in Switzerland to write. Baldwin met Turkish actor Engin Cezzar while working on a stage adaptation of Giovanni's Room in the U.S. in the late 1950s. At the time, he was working on his novel Another Country, and beginning to play a larger role in the civil rights movement. The final relationship Boggs covers is Baldwin's affair and collaboration with French painter Yoran Cazac. They partnered on the children's book Little Man, Little Man, which Boggs explores in extensive detail. The author's rigorous research, including interviews with Cazac, makes for an impressive portrait of Baldwin's life and work. It's a fascinating and original window into the private world of one of America's greatest writers. Agent: Kathleen Anderson, Anderson Literary. (Aug.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
Reenvisioning the life of a major 20th-century writer and civil rights icon. The reputation of James Baldwin (1924-1987) waxed and waned over his lifetime--and beyond. He began as the promising young author of the novelGo Tell It on the Mountain (1953) and the essay collectionNotes of a Native Son (1955) before emerging as a crucial "witness" to the civil rights struggle, electrifying readers with his book-length essayThe Fire Next Time (1963). Yet his frank treatment of homosexuality in novels likeGiovanni's Room (1956) andAnother Country (1962) discomfited publishers and critics, and he struck some younger Black radicals as passé. His late fiction was roundly (and unfairly) dismissed. In recent years, the advent of Black Lives Matter and a host of new critical studies have forced us to rethink Baldwin. The author of this vibrant new biography divides his "Love Story" into discrete sections named for four men in the subject's life: painter Beauford Delaney, an early mentor and "spiritual father"; Lucien Happersberger, the Swiss man he called "the love of my life," whose emotional support enabled him to completeGiovanni's Room; Engin Cezzar, the Turkish actor and "blood brother" who offered refuge in Istanbul during the turbulent '60s; and Yoran Cazac, an enigmatic French artist and collaborator onLittle Man, Little Man, a 1976 picture book. (Boggs played a decisive role in the book's 2018 reissue and interrupts the narrative to recount his efforts to locate and interview Cazac, a backstory that might have been more effective as an afterword.) Boggs establishes Baldwin as a restless writer who publicly "forced readers to confront the connections between white supremacy, masculinity, and sexuality" while privately seeking the "redemptive power of love" with other men, gay, straight, and bisexual. A dynamic portrait that deepens our understanding of a complex artist. Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
