If Beale Street Could Talk | If Beale Street Could Talk

At a glance:

Author: James Baldwin
First Published: 1974
Type of Plot: Realism
Time of Work: The 1950’s
Setting: New York City and San Juan, Puerto Rico
Principal Characters: Clementine Rivers (Tish), Alonzo Hunt (Fonny), Ernestine Rivers (Sis), Sharon Rivers, Joseph Rivers (Joe), Frank Hunt, Alice Hunt
Genres: Long fiction, Realism, Social realism
Subjects: 1950’s, Family or family life, New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Prisoners, Racism, Love or romance, New York City, Pregnancy, Rape, Theft, Puerto Rico or Puerto Ricans
Locales: New York, NY, Puerto Rico, San Juan, Puerto Rico

The Novel

In the opening scene of the novel, nineteen-year-old Clementine Rivers (Tish), sitting with phone in hand on one side of a solid glass barrier, tells twenty-two-year-old Alonzo Hunt (Fonny), who is in jail, and on the other side of the glass wall, that she is pregnant with his child. That she is unmarried does not bother Tish. She knows that she and Fonny had planned to marry, and had Fonny not been falsely accused of raping a Puerto Rican woman, they would have been wed.

The novel is divided into two parts. Part 1, “Troubled About My Soul,” constitutes...

If Beale Street Could Talk | If Beale Street Could Talk

At a glance:

The Novel

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