Blues for Mister Charlie - (Vintage International) by James Baldwin (Paperback)

About the Book

From the murder that marks its opening scene to the scathing dialogue that transforms racism in America from an abstraction to a palpable emotion that grips the heart, this award-winning play touches us all with its rare humanity and with its piercing vision of our nation, our times, and ourselves.

Book Synopsis

An award-winning play from one of America's most brilliant writers about a murder in a small Southern town, loosely based on the 1955 killing of Emmett Till. - "A play with fires of fury in its belly, tears of anguish in its eyes, a roar of protest in its throat." --The New York Times

James Baldwin turns a murder and its aftermath into an inquest in which even the most well-intentioned whites are implicated--and in which even a killer receives his share of compassion.

In a small Southern town, a white man murders a black man, then throws his body in the weeds. With this act of violence, James Baldwin launches an unsparing and at times agonizing probe of the wounds of race.

For where once a white storekeeper could have shot a "boy" like Richard Henry with impunity, times have changed. And centuries of brutality and fear, patronage and contempt, are about to erupt in a moment of truth as devastating as a shotgun blast.

Review Quotes

"A play with fires of fury in its belly, tears of anguish in its eyes, a roar of protest in its throat." --The New York Times

"Explosive, eloquent, honest.... To read it is devastating." --San Francisco Chronicle

About the Author

James Baldwin (1924-1987) was a novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, appeared in 1953 to excellent reviews, and his essay collections Notes of a Native Son and The Fire Next Time were bestsellers that made him an influential figure in the growing civil rights movement. Baldwin spent much of his life in France, where he moved to escape the racism and homophobia of the United States. He died in France in 1987, a year after being made a Commander of the French Legion of Honor.