“Another Country” is a novel by James Baldwin that covers the topics of love, bisexual relationships, interracial couples, and extramarital affairs which was quite revolutionary in 1962 when this book was released. I don’t remember how exactly I came across this book but if I were to recommend reading something on race, it wouldn’t be any of those popular books that have circulated in the past few years. It will be “Another Country” by James Baldwin. Besides, it is beautifully written.
“Another Country” by James Baldwin does not have one protagonist but rather covers a group of friends living in New York in the 1960s. All of them are very different: a musician Rufus, an actor Eric, Eric’s lover Yves, Cass who is a housewife and her writer-husband Richard along with Vivaldo who is also an aspiring writer. Although from different backgrounds and races, the characters become intertwined with their search for love and their experience of pain and overcoming things that sometimes can’t be easily overcome. For instance, when Vivaldo and Rufus’ sister fall in love, their relationship is always overshadowed by Ida’s bitterness that her life and the life of her whole family have been ruined by unfairness because of her race which she manifests in Vivaldo. It seems like a fine line to walk and this book is a web of fine lines of intricacies of love.
I highlighted a few quotes that I really liked but my Kindle (yes after 13 years!) died and all my notes from this book are gone. I was able to find though a quote that I remember noting down:
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“The life you think you should want, said Eric, is always the life that looks safest“.
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I definitely recommend this book if you would like to learn more about race, international, and bisexual relationships. We might read history books that give us a glimpse into the events of the 1960s related to race but I always found that reading the stories of actual people is so much more powerful.
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