Beale Street Blues (novel)
Beale Street Blues (Original title: If Beale Street Could Talk ) is a novel by James Baldwin . It was first published in 1974 by Dial Press in New York and in German, translated by Nils Thomas Lindquist, also in 1974 by Rowohlt. In 2018 a new translation by Miriam Mandelkow was published by dtv .
content
The novel is written from the perspective of the first-person narrator, the nineteen-year-old African American Clementine, known as Tish. She has a relationship with Alonzo Hunt, called Fonny. At the beginning of the novel, Fonny is in custody and Clementine has a depressing experience when she is allowed to visit him there for the first time. She confesses to him that she is pregnant by him.
In a flashback, Tish remembers how she met Fonny when she was six years old. In an argument in which Tish's friend Geneva and Fonny's boyfriend Daniel were involved, Tish injures Fonny, who takes revenge on her by spitting on her. In the following years she falls in love with Fonny.
Tish remembers Fonny's parents, who owned a tailor shop and were very religious, but Fonny broke with the Church as a teenager.
After Tish tells Fonny that she is pregnant, she wants to tell her family. Before that, she remembers how her mother and Joseph, her father, met. Contrary to Tish's fears, the family takes the news of her pregnancy positively. Next they figure out how they can help Fonny and consider a visit to a lawyer.
In another flashback, Tish remembers that Fonny had problems with his mother and sisters and that he did a useless apprenticeship as a carpenter, which is where his passion for sculpture comes from. She also thinks back to her first sexual experiences with Fonny.
It is learned that Fonny's arrest was based on a rape allegation. Since the American judiciary often racially harassed African Americans, Tish and her family believe Fonny's innocence. You are now trying to locate the alleged rape victim, a Puerto Rican woman. To do this, a relative travels to Puerto Rico and goes to a favela there ; the trip is unsuccessful, however, as the racism of Puerto Ricans is too strong.
Tish remembers Fonny's earlier conflicts with the police and the fact that these were racially justified. It quickly becomes clear that Fonny was chosen as the suspect because he had the darkest skin color of all the accused.
In the end, Fonny realizes his hopelessness and begins to carve wooden figures in prison.
Reviews
“It's an American tragedy over a white America that can destroy a black's hopes. But it's also a beautiful, powerful, sometimes sugar-sweet love story that has a really free mind. What makes the actually timeless novel look a little old is the macho portrayal of the sexes. "
"The literary quality of the novel lies in the memorable ensemble of characters, the fast-paced, brief exchanges of words, the poetic comparisons that flash up in Tish's brash narrative style, and the oppressive atmosphere."
literature
- James Baldwin: Beale Street Blues . Novel. From the American English by Miriam Mandelkow. dtv, Munich, 2018, ISBN 978-3-423-28987-0
Web links
- Marietta Steinhart: Only love helps against darkness in: Die Zeit, August 13, 2018
- Maike Albath: No claim to justice In: Deutschlandfunk Kultur, December 6, 2018