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Published to mark the forty-fifth anniversary of James Baldwin?s epochal work, this homage by novelist, essayist, and Baldwin biographer Kenan is itself a piercing consideration of the times, and an impassioned call to transcend them.
Melville House
July 2007
On Sale: June 28, 2007
149 pages
ISBN: 1933633247
EAN: 9781933633244
Hardcover
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Non-Fiction
James Baldwinβs THE FIRE NEXT TIME was one of the essential books of the sixties, and one of the most galvanizing statements of the American civil rights movement.
Now, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, with a new generation of Americans confronting what Baldwin called our βracial nightmare,β acclaimed writer Randall Kenan asks: How far have we come?
Combining elements of memoir and commentary, Kenanβs critical eye ranges from his childhood to the present to observe that, while there have been dramatic advances, some old issues have combined with new ones to bedevil us: βNiggerβ has become a hip usage; the African-Americans that have finally attained prominent political positions are, more often than not, arch-conservatives; the Christian and Muslim religions so central to the civil rights movement have become more intolerant, while the stirring spiritual music that inspired it has been replaced by an aggressive form of hip-hop.
Starting with W. E. B. Du Bois and Martin Luther King, Jr., Kenan expands the discussion to include many of todayβs most powerful personalities, such as Oprah Winfrey, O. J. Simpson, Clarence Thomas, Rodney King, Sean βPuffyβ Combs, George Foreman, and Barack Obama.
Published to mark the forty-fifth anniversary of James Baldwinβs epochal work, this homage by novelist, essayist, and Baldwin biographer Kenan is itself a piercing consideration of the times, and an impassioned call to transcend them.
 Media BuzzNews and Notes - August 27, 2007
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