Go Tell It on the Mountain

In the mid-1930s, 14-year-old John Grimes lives in Harlem with his mother, Elizabeth; his father, Gabriel; and his brother, Roy. Their family life revolves around their Pentecostal church where Gabriel is a preacher. Gabriel is strict and often abusive to the boys, and John fantasizes about running away. The family background is revealed through the stories of Gabriel and his older sister Florence. Gabriel, the favored child, was a wild teenager until he found Jesus. He becomes a preacher, though he cannot resist Esther. Florence is determined to make a new life apart from the demands of her ailing mother and dissolute brother Gabriel, but the man she marries is unfaithful. It is Florence who introduces Elizabeth, newly widowed and pregnant with John, to Gabriel. Family secrets, old sins, and redemption are destined to repeat themselves. Baldwin's semiautobiographical novel was first published in 1953 and named by the Modern Library as one of the 20th-century's 100 best English-language novels. Narrator Adam Lazarre-White delivers a perfect presentation. He accurately captures accents of Harlem and of the Deep South but avoids stereotyping.