Dec 30, 2009

Sonny's Blues | Related Titles

As one story among eight in Going to Meet the Man, "Sonny's Blues" gains depth and coherence when read against the others in the collection. The title story in particular, which recounts through a series of flashbacks the emotional core of a sadistic white Southern sheriff who brutalizes his black prisoners during the Civil Rights movement, offers a compelling counterpoint to the frustrations and anger felt by of Sonny and his brother.

Baldwin's first novel, Go Tell it On the Mountain, was published just four years before "Sonny's Blues," and in this story (which...