Welcome to our book club for July ! This month we have read the incredible, raw depiction of life that is James Baldwin’s Another Country. We hope you enjoyed reading along with us. Before we begin, we just wanted to thank everyone who has sent in their thoughts – a few have been selected and are featured at the bottom of The Ploughman’s comments.
The image that stood out to us (amoungst many) is from the end of Part One, set in the early morning just after Ida and Vivaldo have spent the night together. Vivaldo lays in bed as Ida makes him coffee, humming to herself ‘Mamie’s Blues’.
“If you can give me a dollar, give me a lousy dime.
Just gotta feed that lousy man of mine.”
And so here is The Ploughman’s Painting of it – we hope you enjoy ! If any other scenes stood out to you, please get in touch in the form at the bottom of our post and we will try our best to paint it for you. Apart from that, enjoy our thoughts and we will see you again next month for … On The Road by Jack Kerouac. Until then, please send us any more thoughts you have! : )
July’s Book Club. Another Country, James Baldwin
I first read Another Country over a year ago now, and it has proved to be one of those books that I find yourself not being able to forget. It’s not even the intricate details of the plot that have stuck with me, it’s more the mood and the characters that Baldwin creates. These real characters that failed to escape me once I closed the book, they follow me somewhere in the back of my mind as I make decisions and go throughout my day.
James Baldwin’s Unforgettable Structure
What is initially striking about this book is the way that James Baldwin structures it. In any other novel, you would see Rufus live out his days in the pages – but not this one. No, not this novel. We are introduced to Rufus, our poor, troubled and violent Rufus, and we see him for his flaws alongside his triumphs. We see the way that life treats him and follow his mind for a significant amount of time and then, about 90 pages in, we watch as he dies. And then we’re left with the weight of over 300 pages in our right hand, and everything we know about this novel has just jumped headfirst into the freezing cold Hudson River. And for Baldwin to do that – to risk that – wow. This is what adds so much depth to Another Country, what makes it such a solid representation of reality. The structure itself becomes a straining metaphor for grief: Rufus is gone, but the narrative carries on, heavy with his absence. As readers, we intimately watch Rufus live and understand life and then in his death, we see his friends and family do so in his absence, how they carry on. It serves as a true reflection of how lives are built off and infinitely affected by those you have known.
“But it’s not possible to forget anybody you were that hung up on, who was that hung up on you. You can’t forget anything that hurt so badly, went so deep, and changed the world forever. It’s not possible to forget anybody you’ve destroyed.” – James Baldwin, Another Country (1962), Page 58
This poignant passage is placed early on within the book, when Rufus finds himself within a deep rumination. It’s tragedy lies within the final concept of ‘destroying’ – not merely hurting – but completely ruining somebody who you once loved. It is deeply powerful and works to sum up Rufus’s character well. He is flawed, he is violent, he can be cruel and he knows that – this notion haunts him, and yet he never denies his wickedness. And as a reader, I wanted him to. I wanted to remind him that the world, that 1960s America was set up against him and there is a path for him, but before you know it he is dead and the story shows no sign of slowing down. Poor old troubled Rufus, the world destroyed you long before you destoryed anyone else my darling.
Beyond creating real, complicated characters just themselves, Baldwin excels and exploring intense relationships between these people. Cassies affair with Vivaldo stood out to me especially. There is a purity within it, a beauty and gentleness you don’t often find and yet despite this beauty, I still felt genuine heartbreak for Richard. Nobody seems wholly in the wrong, nor wholly in the right, all the while life and beauty and pain bounce off the pages as Richard and Cassie’s life is torn apart.
Sexuality Without Labels: Baldwins Quiet Revolution
Alongside the beauty that Baldwin talks of heterosexual relationships with, he also fills the need for representing homosexual relationships. By delving into the fluidity and complexity of human sexuality, these relationships become more tender, more necessary. It was refreshing to read in today’s world (despite this novel being published in 1962) how sexuality was not the main point of their character. Too often in literature and film alike, queer people’s persona becomes overpowered by their sexual identity. Baldwin fights against the apparent necessity for rigid sexual labels, and this is vital when attempting to encapsulate a whole world within your words.
Rufus: A Life That Shapes Everyone Left Behind
Whilst we meet all these characters and see all their lives unfold, it is Rufus who haunts this novel the most. The tragic concept of the self-fulfilling prophecy seems to be perfectly encapsulated within his thoughts and his actions. He is a man who has internalised the path society and life expect of him, regrettably following it until his death. Perhaps walking across the George Washington Bridge and plunging himself into the blistering cold Hudson River was his first and only true act of defiance to a life that offered him no rest or praise. The poignancy of this truth is only heightened by his sister Ida’s acceptance of it. She deeply understands her brother and knows that he was never going to escape the path offered to a black man in 1960s America, and that in itself is deeply tragic.
“Pray? Who, pray? I bet you, if I ever get anywhere near that white devil you call God, Ill tear my son and my father out of this white hide.” – James Baldwin, Another Country (1962), Page 407.
This comes towards the end of the book, where Ida is recounting to Vivaldo how her father reacted to Rufus’s body. Their father stares down as Rufus’s unrecognizable, torn body and recounts how his own father was brutally killed in a railroad incident. He sees, in the worst possible way, how unfair the world is to African Americans and how inescapable racial violence is. It seems to him that even God, his lord, is working against him and his family.
Another Country is undoubtedly brilliant. Reading it felt like reading a case study of humanity, and that’s how I will forever remember it in my mind. Its characters, its themes and its world is so damn real. Its tragedy is real. It is real.
The Ploughman’s Community Comments
Tanya, Netherlands: I have always been interested in the concept of The Great American Novel. These past years I have read Steinbeck, Fitzgerald and most of the other known candidates. It is only now that I read Baldwin that I finally feel as if I may have found it. Another Country was incredible, the vast amount of people it covers and perspectives it tells, I really believe it to be The Great American novel.
Mo, England: 4 years ago I read this book. Rufus has stayed in my mind ever since. Is he a good person who has been corrupted by society, or was he always bad? I really don’t know, but I want to believe that he is good.
Terri, Wales: A part of this novel which really stood out to me was Vivaldo’s jealousy of (his friend) Richard’s writing. Vivaldo seems to be so full of love and genuinely good, yet when he read Richard’s novel he becomes joyed at it’s short comings. I don’t know why, but when I read that part Vivaldo felt more real. His envy and schadenfreude made him real and I don’t know what that says about humanity.
Anonymous Form Response, USA: I did not want this novel to end while reading it. It was not even 500 pages but felt like 1000, not in the long drawn out way, but in the I don’t want this book to end way. The scene that stood out to me the most was the conversation between Vivaldo and Eric. That entire part it felt like the words I was reading off the page were electrically charged. I think it was funny how the entire time they are talking, theres so much tension, sexual tension, and then when they finally go to sleep, the moment seems to be over, but surely enough right after we see how Cass and Ida’s night went.. BOOM. There it is.. what I was secretly hoping and waiting for. I would love to see a painting of them in Eric’s room, Vivaldo spread out on the bed, Eric gazing at him. Cups of whiskey and cigarettes around them.
Our Reply: ‘Electrically charged’ – what a way to describe words! I couldn’t agree more. And yes, the scene with Eric and Vivaldo talking I remember being taken away by. Everything about that scene seems to encapsulate why Baldwin excels as a writer. The conversations he crafts and how he crafts them is so very human. Let me try and paint that in the coming week, I’ll drop it here when I’ve finished : )
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Before you go, we will leave you with this video. If you have the time, we would really recommend checking it out. Thanks for reading our post, see you next month!
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