At the height of his theatrical career, the actor Leo
Proudhammer is nearly felled by a heart attack. As he hovers
between life and death, Baldwin shows the choices that have
made him enviably famous and terrifyingly
vulnerable.
For between Leo's childhood
on the streets of Harlem and his arrival into the
intoxicating world of the theater lies a wilderness of
desire and loss, shame and rage. An adored older brother
vanishes into prison. There are love affairs with a white
woman and a younger black man, each of whom will make
irresistible claims on Leo's loyalty. And everywhere there
is the anguish of being black in a society that at times
seems poised on the brink of total racial war. Overpowering
in its vitality, extravagant in the intensity of its
feeling, Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone is a major
work of American literature.
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