The Fire Next Time
James Baldwin, Author, Jesse L. Martin, Narrated by , read by Jesse L. Martin. BBC Audiobooks America $14.95 (0p) ISBN 978-1-6028-3364-7
Speakers or headsets will have to be turned up to listen to Jesse L. Martin's low, slow reading of Baldwin's classic long essay on racism and African-American identity. Martin seeks to be respectful of Baldwin, but he ends up rendering the meaning and the force of his work relatively inert. Pausing in poorly selected places, placing emphasis where little should be placed, Martin does not convey the precision and anger of Baldwin's prose. Instead, Baldwin's book becomes Great Literature, to be intoned and honored, but not truly grasped. Readers with an interest in Baldwin's work will be far better served by reading his prose to themselves than having Martin read it to them.
Reviewed on: 05/26/2008
Release date: 01/01/2008
Genre: Audio
Hardcover - 192 pages - 9780030554421
Hardcover - 105 pages - 9780679601517
Paperback - 128 pages - 9780679744726
Prebound-Other - 106 pages - 9780613186391
Compact Disc - 2 pages - 9781602833647