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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780679744719
ISBN number: 0679744711
Label: Vintage
Manufacturer: Vintage
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 448
Printing Date: December 01, 1992
Publishing house: Vintage
Release Date: December 01, 1992
Sale Popularity Level: 52155
Studio: Vintage
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Product Description:
Set in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France, among other locales, Another Country is a novel of passions--sexual, racial, political, artistic--that is stunning for its emotional intensity and haunting sensuality, depicting men and women, blacks and whites, stripped of their masks of gender and race by love and hatred at the most elemental and sublime. In a small set of friends, Baldwin imbues the best and worst intentions of liberal America in the early 1970s.
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Rated by buyers 
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Baldwin has been buried in our community because of his sexuality. I can even admit hesitation when i 1st picked up a copy of Giovanni's Room from my local library. But after i was sucked into this world Balwin created, i knew how powerful a writter he truly was. Another Country is no different. These characters are so real and the outcome of real life can be ugly - Baldwin makes sure that we see the ugliness in life as well as the sweet times we rarely pay attention to. Before race relations were vougue, Baldwin tackled these stories head on.
Rated by buyers 
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I had to read this book for one of my classes in college and I was glad I was assigned to it. It touched basis on all political and talked about issues that still occure even to this day, even though it was written around 40 years ago. Bravo to the author and it's a good read with a nice plot.
Rated by buyers -
In an essay criticizing the works of Richard Wright, James Baldwin surveyed the field of African American literature and found much violence, but very little sex. As biographer James Campbell notes, "Another Country" is Baldwin's endeavor to fill that perceived void; it has plenty of "sex" (from lust to romance), and it explores in particular an era in which the intersection of sex and race was increasingly capturing the public's attention.
The storyline concerns six people who are in some way connected to Rufus Scott, a jazz drummer whose suicide affects their lives in unpredictable and emotional ways. There are a straight white couple (the novelist Richard and his wife Cass), a mixed-race couple (Rufus's sister, Ida, and the writer Vivaldo), a gay couple (Eric and Yves), and an unexpected affair between two of the six friends.
The opening chapter in particular is one of Baldwin's most potent, combining both the violence of Wright's novels and the sex Baldwin felt was missing. The rest of the book is a rollercoaster of emotional highs and everyday life. The prose sours when Baldwin describes both the frayed lives of his characters and the steamy streets and seedy watering holes of Manhattan. And the lyrical treatment of Eric and Yves's relationship is especially affecting. The book was a huge best-seller when it was published, and I imagine it's this cutting-edge blend of controversy and passion that appealed to readers in the mid-1960s
But then there's the sex. By today's standard's, the descriptions are hardly explicit. Yet, unfortunately, these passages are so appallingly bad it's hard to believe that Baldwin wrote them: "He felt the bed throbbing beneath them, and heard it sing." "He began to gallop her, whinnying a little with delight, and, for the very first time, became a little cold with fright...."--well, I'll spare you the rest.
It would be a mistake, however, to dismiss the book because of these scenes. The characters are both believable and unforgettable, the racial and sexual tensions are recognizably human, and the social milieu is still familiar to anyone who has lived near or in the bohemian neighborhoods of America.
Rated by buyers -
I just finished this novel and I have to say that I was blown away by Baldwin's writing. I disagree with one of the reviewers who wrote that this should be required text for high school or jr. high students. For one thing, the subject matter is way too mature for their brains to digest at such a young age. This is a novel for intelligent adults with an open mind. If you are a homophobe or have any racism residing in your heart then don't read this novel, because you will not enjoy it whatsoever. If I would have read this before the age of thirty I would not have liked it and probably wouldn't have finished reading it(this is unequivocally a very adult novel). That being said, you will be hard-pressed to find a more gritty, brilliant, fiercly told story than this one. I personally believe that the dialogue between the main charactiers is excellent and very real. As complex, flawed, and often times even repugnant the main characters are, you still can't help but to care about each one of them as if they were your friend or loved one. This is the beauty of this novel in my opinion - Baldwin's ability to really develop each character. This is definitely a novel that is character-driven and upon finishing the novel you can't help but feel a bit disheartened knowing that your time spent with them is now over. It leaves you yearning for more!
This is my very first novel by Baldwin and I am off to the bookstore (sorry Amazon, I just can't wait) to purchase a few more (Go Tell It On A Mountain will be my next). He was such a brilliant, brave, unique writer who displays so much courage in his prose that it's impossible to not admire the man. Also, I really enjoy reading authors like this who paint a completely different picture of Americana than we are typically accustomed to (i.e. Kerouac, Bukowski, Vonnegut, etc...).
Overall, the book was great. Once you get into it (for me it started on page 1) it's very difficult to put down no matter how heavy and often times disturbing it can be. However, racism is always disturbing no matter how you slice it. Baldwin just doesn't slice it in thin easy to digest pieces that's all. So if you want to read a 'nice', 'sweet' interacial love story don't purchase this. However, if you want to challenge yourself and allow your mind to expand and actually THINK, then by all means this is the perfect book for you.
Rated by buyers 
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If you follow the trajectory of James Baldwin's writing, you'll see that he established certain themes, then reiterated them in a variety of settings. His themes are pertinent and show great insight, but if you were to read two or three of his books, by the time you got to the third, you'd say, "O.k., I get it already."
Such is the case with Another Country. If you've read any Baldwin, thematically it's nothing you haven't heard before. But, his earlier novels were clearly stated, concise, and powerful as a result. This novel is an unbelievably bloated mess which easily could have been half the length and still gotten its points across. Every single scene goes on way too long, the dialogue between the characters is interminable and pedantic, and there is an element of melodrama better served in soap operas.
Baldwin has said that this was the novel that meant the most to him, which is further proof that artists aren't necessarily the best judges of their work. Go Tell It On The Mountain is a masterpiece and most indicative of Baldwin's considerable literary powers, and I would recommend you read that or Giovanni's Room, which is less powerful, but eloquent and substantial. Another Country is a slog that doesn't repay in substance the efforts necessary to get through it.
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