2. "Hmmm, my favorite is "Another Counrty", but " In response to Reply # 1
it's probably not the best starting point for someone who's only familiar with his essays. Start with "Going to Meet the Man" it's a collection of short stories
9. "go in order. trust me" In response to Reply # 1
Go Tell It On A Mountain Giovanni's Room *those two are shorts reads Another Country Going to Meet the Man (collection of shorts: two of my favorite stories ever are in that collection) Tell Me How Long The Train Has Been Gone
you see him go from a writer who is working his own niche within the broader white American / european narrative form (he loved himself some Henry James) to some one who just becomes more and more radicalized, and the rage and desire to breath on the page becomes more apparent, as the nation moved into the heart of its beast
I mean that line is felt from Fire Next Time to No Name In The Street
but it's interesting to see it manifest on the page and coincidentally the critics who loved ...Mountain and ...Room, really began to shit on his fiction as it moved forward.
12. "I like the Essays more but that's more the type of reader I am" In response to Reply # 0
In general I prefer non-fiction. In his case probably my favorite works are the indelible "The Fire Next Time" and then a plain-looking, big, hardbound collection of essays (most are pretty short) that's like a compilation over his entire career. But his fiction is also wonderful. I think the essays are more concise and penetrating, the fiction is more layered and exploratory. He also wrote plays and all sorts of stuff, like the Da Vinci of literature.
And you will know MY JACKET IS GOLD when I lay my vengeance upon thee.
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