Arena

In only 100 or so pages, James Baldwin absolutely blew me away. I deeply felt his themes of love and anger- not as opposites, but complementing each other- and there were certain descriptions, especially when he remembers his first experience in the church at the beginning of Down at the Cross, that I physically felt in my body. It was also fascinating to compare what Baldwin was writing in 1963 with the voices of racial liberation today- one thing I realised while reading The Fire Next Time was how much we owe to the wisdom of elders like Baldwin for the language and outlook we have today. This is a short, accessible but powerful and visceral read, and I would recommend it to people of any race or level of nonfiction reading experience.