“If Beale Street Could Talk” (1974) is a short novel by James Baldwin about what it is like to live in the US, especially for Black men, especially in terms of the police and the courts. Set in the 1970s it could have been written almost yesterday. And even then it would be the Disney version. Just ask Kalief Browder’s family.
In 2018 it was made into a film directed by Barry Jenkins, he who gave us “Moonlight” (2016). I might do a post on the film if I see it. This one is about the book.
Place: New York (Harlem, Greenwich Village, the Tombs), Puerto Rico.
Time: circa 1973.
Our Story: Tish and Fonny are in love and want to get married. They are childhood sweethearts. Tish is expecting their firstborn – but Fonny is in jail accused of raping a Puerto Rican woman he has never met. As the day of the trial approaches, Tish tells the tale, past and present. Her family and his family are doing everything they can to get him out of jail, but they are poor and the courts do not work well (or work all too well) if you have no money.
The best scene: Tish buying tomatoes. Everything becomes extremely vivid, just like in a life-or-death moment. Because it becomes life-or-death. She is on Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, a White part of Manhattan. A White police officer is across the street. A greasy Italian junkie starts putting his hands on her. Fonny, coming back from buying cigarettes, sees it and hits him, sending the junkie to the ground, bleeding. Officer Bell, the White police officer, comes across the street to arrest Fonny. The shopkeeper, an Italian lady, saw the whole thing and sticks up for Fonny. He was defending his woman like any good man would. Bell lets Fonny go, but now he has his address in the Village.
Then one night the police come for him.
Officer Bell’s eyes when Tish looks into them:
“his eyes were as blank as George Washington’s eyes. But I was beginning to learn something about the blankness of those eyes. What I was learning was beginning to frighten me to death. If you look steadily into that unblinking blue, into that pinpoint at the center of the eye, you discover a bottomless cruelty, a viciousness cold and icy. In that eye, you do not exist: if you are lucky. If that eye, from its height, has been forced to notice you, if you do exist in the unbelievably frozen winter which lives behind that eye, you are marked, marked, marked, like a man in a black overcoat, crawling, fleeing, across the snow. The eye resents your presence in the landscape, cluttering up the view. Presently, the black overcoat will be still, turning red and with blood, and the snow will be red, and the eye resents this, too, blinks once, and causes more snow to fall, covering it all.”
– Abagond, 2018.
See also:
- books
- Kalief Browder
- Moonlight
- The police
- Harlem
- also set in Black New York in the 1970s
- Puerto Rico
- George Washington through Native American eyes
541
“…the black overcoat will be still, turning red and with blood, and the snow will be red, and the eye resents this, too, blinks once, and causes more snow to fall, covering it all.”
…reading this description – revealing the icy coldness of a monster that still exists among us is captured so eloquently by Baldwin. I have heard of Baldwin but have never read his books. I am going to find and read his works – his depth captures a view point that will give the present generation needed insight.
LikeLiked by 2 people
@Abagond: You said ask Kalief Browder’s mother. Venida Browder Kalief’s mom passed away October 2016.
LikeLike
@ Mary
Thank you.
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am hoping to see the movie and want to listen to it on Audible while I read. The book has been sitting on my shelf for many years because I read it many years ago. I would like to reread again.
LikeLike
I seem to recall that Mr James Baldwin was a guest for Johnny Carson and the tonight show around the late 70s or early 80s. I remember seeing a brief clip? Can somebody confirm? Could be a late night political talk show?
LikeLike
@TeddyBearDaddy
Myself, I don’t recall Mr Baldwin ever being on the Tonight show, but he did make an appearance on the Dick Cavett show. You can find that clip here:
LikeLiked by 1 person
I am rereading my old worn out copy that i purchased by in the 80’s. The pages are yellowed but still readable. I do love the beauty and sweetness of the young lovers Fonny and Tish. I love Baldwin’s words describing the intensity and tenderness and sweetness of the young lovers. I had forgotten how awful Fonny’s mother and sister were. His sanctimonious, holier than thou mother is a horrible and hateful woman and his snobby sisters. I like his father and i like Tish’s family how they love Fonny and are working to help get him released from jail.
LikeLike
The lots of scenes in the book are vivid and I can feel like I am right there with the characters.
LikeLike
@marry Burrell
I’m not trying to offend anybody and know that Kali Broder mother wasnt his biological but nevertheless his mother. To me this story parallels the Benji Simmons story as a basketball fan. Benji’s mother transpires another 14 to 15 years later living in horrific sorrow after his death. What happened to Broder is still an ongoing occurrence today. Some do overcome somehow to live societal definitions of a productive life. Everybody is different and does not take away from the Broder tragedy.
LikeLike
*It was Benji Wilson and he Simmeon Academy.
LikeLike