My Favorite Book

My favorite book of the course is Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin. My reason for liking this book is two-fold. First, I enjoyed the style in which it was written. This book read so quickly because the stories were engaging and easy to follow. I especially liked that if I wasn’t that into one story, I didn’t have to worry because it would soon be over.

Second, I really enjoyed the diversity in the stories. Baldwin covered all types: white and black, adults and children. By doing this, Baldwin really showed how we are all inner-connected. I especially loved Baldwin’s ability to connect so many different parts of this world to his stories. For an example, in “Sonny’s Blues” Baldwin intertwined the theme of music in his story. Music was even reflected in his sentence structure. When he talks about Sonny playing, each sentence reflects the speed that Sonny is playing at. For an example, when Sonny is playing quickly, the sentences are short and also read quickly.

I also really liked how Baldwin told stories about white people. It was nice to see how he has “imagined us”. Furthermore, Baldwin was truly able to change the voice to fit different characters. So often, writers have a difficult time changing their voice when the story changes. But with Baldwin, each story had a different sound and a different feel.

Overall, Going to Meet the Man by James Baldwin is my favorite book so far because it was easy to read and had a lot of diversity in the stories. Needless to say, Baldwin is one author I plan to pick up and read again and again.