Sonny's Blues by James Baldwin

It didn't take me very long to get into James Baldwin's "Sonny's Blues", in fact I think I was hooked after reading the very first paragraph. There was just something about Baldwin's style that really drew me in and captivated me. From beginning to end I marked several quotes that honestly struck me and got me thinking. Below are a couple I wanted to share.

 "All of this was carrying me some place I didn't want to go. I certainly didn't want to know how it felt; it filled everything, the people, the houses, the music, the dark, quicksilver barmaid, with menace; and this menace was their reality." 

 This quote made me think of suffering and how, throughout the story, the narrator detects it wherever he goes. Suffering is definitely a major theme here because the narrator reveals it when he gives us flashbacks of his past (e.g. his mom telling the story of the death of his father's brother), and in telling us readers about the present. While it was obvious that Sonny suffered quite a bit I felt more sympathy towards the narrator because he knew his brother was in pain yet he had no idea what to do about it. Which raises the question: is there anything one can do about it? Near the end of the story the narrator asks, "But there's no way not to suffer - is there, Sonny?"

 "Yet, when he smiled, when we shook hands, the baby brother I'd never known looked out from the depths of his private life, like an animal waiting to be coaxed into the light."

I really liked the visual imagery in this sentence, let alone throughout the entire story. That was one of the main reasons why I enjoyed Baldwin’s writing – his words were incredibly descriptive and engaging; I never lost interest. Overall I think the story was not only very well-written but it offered the readers a great message: the true importance of family and the healing power of music.

Ray Charles was a great Blues musician and "Georgia on my Mind" is my favorite song of his. :)