JOHN GREEN, MICHAL BONCZA and BELLA KATZ review The Good Boy, Broken English, and Don't Be Prey
Latest editorial
Seeker of justice in the here and now
TOM KING recommends a new biography of the great black writer and political activist James Baldwin
LANDMARK: James Baldwin, flanked by actors Charlton Heston (left) and Marlon Brando at the Civil Rights March on Washington in 1963
Photo US Information Agency, Press and Publications Service
ALAN MORRISON recommends a consummate, heart-warming collection about a working-class upbringing in the industrial north-east
KATAYOUN SHAHANDEH surveys Iran’s cultural heritage and explains what has been damaged and what could be lost
A dazzling novel, and autobiographical fiction, by Mexicans Brenda Navarro and Cristina Rivera Garza, and poetry by Brazilian Ricardo Domeneck
JONATHAN TAYLOR ponders the difference between autobiography and memoir - between life and story - in Margaret Atwood’s account of herself
Rereleases from Andrew Gold; John McFee, Stu Cook, Keith Knudsen; and The Outer Limits
Living in Fire
by Bill V Mullen
(Pluto Press, £20)
IN TRENTON, New Jersey, in 1942 the 18-year-old James Baldwin walked into a diner and ordered a hamburger and a cup of coffee. “We don’t serve Negroes here,” the waitress replied.
He left, calmly and without a fight, heading straight to an “enormous, glittering and fashionable restaurant” where he “knew not even the intercession of the Virgin” would get him what he asked for.
He went inside, repeated his order, received an identical reply and, lifting a mug full of water from the nearest table, threw it at the waitress. She ducked and it smashed against the mirror behind the bar.
Similar stories
When Patterson and Liston met in the ring in 1962, it was more than a title bout — it was a collision of two black archetypes shaped by white America’s fears and fantasies, writes JOHN WIGHT
MAT COWARD tells the extraordinary story of the second world war Spitfire pilot who became Britain’s most famous Stalag escaper, was awarded an MBE, mentored a generation of radio writers and co-founded a hardline Marxist-Leninist party
MAT COWARD introduces the creator of the Good Food Guide, communist and crime fiction writer – Raymond Postgate
JOHN WIGHT pays tribute to the late great George Foreman who defied the odds throughout his life and career to become a household name and legend of the sport