In New York City a group of friends, black, white, married, single, bi and gay try to negotiate life. Rufus is a black musician in a tumultuous relationship with Leona, a southern white woman. “They fought each other with their hands and their voices and then their bodies.” He’s homeless and eventually comes to a bad end. His white friend, Vivaldo begins to see life through the eyes of Rufus, harsh and racist.

Rufus’ sister, Ida, tries to love Vivaldo, but the race gap is too much. She learns to use white men to get what she wants. Another friend, Richard, finds that finally approaching his goal of becoming a successful novelist has its drawbacks in his personal life. Eric, an actor, has been sequestered in France with his lover, Yves, but has returned for a part on Broadway. He becomes enmeshed with both Vivaldo and Richard’s wife, Cass.

Baldwin equates love with hostility and cruelty. He also paints a picture of the creative life as one of struggle, despair and compromise, especially if you’re black. This is anxiety fiction. No one is happy. They may have been happy once, long ago, but may not be again. ( )

Read first 50 pages just before book club. Black musician Rufus Scott wanders the streets of New York, remembering the events that led to his condition, which began with an affair with white, Southern Leona (this was published before Loving vs. Virginia).

"They knew that no one heard, that bloodless people cannot be made to bleed." (5)

In the 1950s, liberalism took a different form than it does today. For many, rejecting the norm and what was proper meant possibilities. For others, it wasn't subversive--it was just who they were. But society didn't do anyone any favors. Race, sexuality, and class weren't areas where there was much room for latitude or forgiveness.

Another Country follows a group of friends who try to navigate this environment while seeking truths about themselves. What does it mean to be an artist? How does one know when their life is fulfilled? Are they really universal truths in life? All questions with no easy answers. But over the course of several months the characters wrestle with them in search of some truth.

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Glimpses of history are always very interesting to me. And here James Baldwin gives us just that. And not only is this book a window into the time period, he wrote it at a time when these weren't the kinds of things people regularly wrote about. So the book itself goes against convention by telling the story of people who went against convention. It's a bit meta, but it's also really well written and engaging. ( )

Rufus is a jazz musician in NYC, a black man down on his luck as a result of a toxic relationship with a white southern woman. The novel follows the fallout of this relationship and the ripple-effect consequences its ending has on Rufus's circle of friends.

Baldwin's works all have the same effect on me: I recognize his talents in the language he uses and the way he crafts his novels, but I never really enjoy them. They're just...not my thing. He is absolutely excellent at what he does - gritty books in which people and their relationships with one another are the entire story - and I'm never sorry I've read them because of how good a writer he is, but I just don't enjoy novels in which the focus is on not-exactly-likable characters doing not much else except interacting with other not-very-likable characters. ( )

Another Country is a fantastic book with many themes and messages that are sadly still relevant for our times. James Baldwin is a talented author who tells a story set in the late 1950s, explaining racism through splendidly developed characters. Rufus Scott, a Black drummer who is deeply affected by a world that does not understand his soul, commits suicide early in the story, and the rest of the book focuses on the people who knew him and their imperfect relationships. Few authors can develop characters as powerful as Baldwin’s. Through the characters’ interactions, love affairs, and dialog, the reader comes to appreciate Black Americans’ issues. Ida, Rufus’s sister, vividly conveys the plight of the Black American female. Ida is so overpowered by some of the men in the story that we begin to see how important it is for Black women to tell their stories. Interracial relationships are depicted throughout the novel, and the omniscient narrator describes the feelings of the characters and those they encounter in a realistic, thought-provoking manner.
Additionally, Baldwin’s narrative includes explicit sexual encounters between gay and bisexual characters in a world that is unaccepting. Some of the most poignant takeaways are about relationships and commonalities in all relationships. Baldwin’s characters converse in a manner that is universally understood and relatable. ( )