Going to Meet the Man

James Baldwin (1924-1987) was educated in New York. He is the author of more than twenty works of fiction and nonfiction, including Go Tell It on the Mountain, Notes of a Native Son, Another Country, and Blues for Mister Charlie.

''Dion Graham's reading requires him to master an array of voices: hellfire-preaching ministers, deliciously profane Harlem locals,...kittenish women. Graham ranges from tremulous exertion to sudden flashes of rage, his reading flecked by an exhaustion that creeps in at the margins of Baldwin's prose. Baldwin's protagonists are weary of a world that allows them no respite from racism and hatred, and Graham echoes that weariness, his voice hushed and low, its register reflecting their struggle to survive.'' --Publishers Weekly

''Timeless in its treatment of youthful innocence, prejudice, addiction, loneliness, fear, and human suffering...Dion Graham is masterly in his rendering of the vast array of characters in these eight disparate tales. Highly recommended.'' --Library Journal

''All of these tales have an undeniable urgency, power, and anger...Symphonic in structure, mixing religious and sexual motifs, encompassing various shades of characters and situations...memorable in every sense; funny, sad, colorful, it is a triumphant performance.'' --Kirkus Reviews

''Many of these situations don't occur in quite the same ways now, but narrator Dion Graham makes them timely and universally human...a heartbreaking performance...Graham's reading pulls the listener back to a time when [these stories] were fresh, raw wounds.'' --AudioFile