The Fire This Time
by Randall Kenan
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James Baldwin's The Fire Next Time was one of the essential books of the sixties and one of the most galvanizing books of the American civil rights movement. Now, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, with a new generation of Americans confronting what Baldwin called our "racial nightmare," best-selling author Randall Kenan asks: How far have we come? The shocking revelations of New Orleans confirmed a shameful truth. Randall Kenan declares that truth, and seeks its transcendence, in this show more impassioned book.--From publisher description. show lessTags
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Finishing this rounds out my trio of reading letters/essays about race in America:
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (1963)
The Fire This Time by Randall Kenan (2007)
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2015)
I have to say that this book resonated the most with me of the three. Perhaps it is because the author & I are closest in age/time growing up, perhaps it is that we both spent part of our childhoods in rural North Carolina (he lived there; I had extended family that lived there & spent a good bit of time there as I grew up), perhaps it is that we have similar news/cultural/social references (being from the same generation).
I've found all three books to be intensely personal & hard to rate. They have stretched my brain & my show more heart, my soul too. Simply because of something called race, they have lived & experienced a different life than I have; fortunately, they have shared their experiences, thoughts, & feelings on paper. There is a lot to think about here in these letters & essays, especially in light of all our race-related killings, riots, protests, & crimes in this 'modern' day & age of 2015. We've come a long way, yet have an awfully long way to go too. Thank you, Mr. Baldwin, Mr. Kenan, & Mr. Coates. show less
The Fire Next Time by James Baldwin (1963)
The Fire This Time by Randall Kenan (2007)
Between the World and Me by Ta-Nehisi Coates (2015)
I have to say that this book resonated the most with me of the three. Perhaps it is because the author & I are closest in age/time growing up, perhaps it is that we both spent part of our childhoods in rural North Carolina (he lived there; I had extended family that lived there & spent a good bit of time there as I grew up), perhaps it is that we have similar news/cultural/social references (being from the same generation).
I've found all three books to be intensely personal & hard to rate. They have stretched my brain & my show more heart, my soul too. Simply because of something called race, they have lived & experienced a different life than I have; fortunately, they have shared their experiences, thoughts, & feelings on paper. There is a lot to think about here in these letters & essays, especially in light of all our race-related killings, riots, protests, & crimes in this 'modern' day & age of 2015. We've come a long way, yet have an awfully long way to go too. Thank you, Mr. Baldwin, Mr. Kenan, & Mr. Coates. show less
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12+ Works 989 Members
Raised in Chinquapin, North Carolina. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with degrees in English and Creative writing (1985). He is a Black, gay Southerner which is the creative foundation for his work. Randall Kenan is the author of the novel A Visitation of Spirits (1989) and the short story collection Let the Dead show more Bury Their Dead (1992). The latter was nominated for the 1992 National Book Critics Circle Award in Fiction. After the success of A Visitation of Spirits, Kenan began working on a new book. More than a dozen years ago, he rented a car and set out from New York on a cross-country journey to interview African Americans. The title of the book that resulted, Walking on Water (1999), comes from the story of slaves en route from Africa who commandeered their ship off the coast of Georgia around 1800. Legend has it that they walked off the ship to an unknown fate. In his book, Kenan attempts to learn that fate. His other books include James Baldwin: American Writer (1993), A Time Not Here: The Mississippi Delta (he wrote the text for this collection of photographs by Norman Mauskoff published in 1997), The Fire This Time (2007), and If I had Two Wings (2020), a short story collection. His awards include a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Whiting award, the Sherwood Anderson Award, the John Dos Passos Prize, and the Rome Prize from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. When he isn't writing, Kenan teaches writing classes at Sarah Lawrence College and Columbia University. He is also a contributor to the New York Times and The Nation and was once an assistant editor at Knopf. Randall Kenan had a stroke several years ago and had heart related problems. He died on August 28, 2020 at the age of 57. (P) (Bowker Author Biography) show less
Common Knowledge
- Original publication date
- 2007
Classifications
- Genres
- Nonfiction, Politics and Government, General Nonfiction, Literature Studies and Criticism, History, Religion & Spirituality
- DDC/MDS
- 323.1196 — Society, Government, and Culture Political science Civil Rights & Liberties/ Human Rights Minority Politics Specific Groups Biography And History African Origin
- LCC
- E185.615 .K3747 — History of the United States United States
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 51
- Popularity
- 591,841
- Reviews
- 1
- Rating
- (3.70)
- Languages
- English
- Media
- Paper, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 5
- ASINs
- 2
