- Just Above My Head
infobox Book |
name = Just Above My Head
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translator =
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author = James Baldwin
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country =United States
language = English
series =
genre =Novel
publisher =
release_date = 1979
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pages =
isbn =
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followed_by ="Just Above My Head" is James Baldwin's sixth novel, first published in 1979.
Plot introduction
The novel tells the life story of a group of friends, from preaching in
Harlem , through to experiencing 'incest, war, poverty, the civil-rights struggle, as well as wealth and love and fame--inKorea ,Africa , Birmingham,New York ,Paris .' [New York Times , "Just Above My Head" byJohn Romano , September 23, 1979 [http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/03/29/specials/baldwin-above.html] ]Characters
*Arthur Montana, a homosexual who becomes worldfamous "Emperor of Soul". He started out in a quartet, the Trumpets of Zion.
*Hall Montana, Arthur's brother, a married man in his forties.
*Ruth Granger, Hall's wife. Hall met her at a fundraiser.
*Paul Montana, Arthur and Hall's late father. He was born inTallahassee, Florida , grew up inNew Orleans , moved toCalifornia and finally toNew York City .
*Florence Montana, Hall and Arthur's mother.
*Tony, Hall's son.
*Odessa, Hall's daughter.
*Faulkner, amasochistic white man Arthur knew.
*Crunch, Arthur's lover. He was a member of the Trumpets of Zion. His real name was Jason Hogan.
*Red, a member of the Trumpets of Zion. He has become a drug addict and been to prison several times.
*Lorna, Red's wife. She has left him, with their two sons.
*Peanut, a member of the Trumpets of Zion. He was later murdered.
*Jimmy, a neighbour of the Halls when they were younger.
*Julia, Jimmy's sister.
*Brother Joel Miller
*Amy Miller, Julia's and Jimmy's mother. She dies shortly after a miscarriage.
*Reverend Parker, Julia'sEvangelist reverend when she was younger.
*Mrs Bessie, a blind old black woman whom Julia took to the church when she was younger.
*Sidney, a bartender. He was brought up by his grandmother, who died recently.
*Martha, a young woman who works at theHarlem Hospital. She is Hall's ex-girlfriend. Her aunt, Josephine, is from theWest Indies .
*Mr Clarence Webster, a black music teacher and impresario for the Trumpets of Zion.
*Sister Dorothy Green.
*Blanche, Hall's landlady.
*Faulkner Grey, a work colleague of Hall's.
*Mrs Isabel Reed, ahigh school teacher from Richmond.
*Mr Reed, a lawyer fromTuscaloosa, Alabama .
*Reverend Williams, a preacher from Richmond.
*Mrs Elkins, a hostess inAtlanta, Georgia .
*Guy Lazar, a ginger-haired French man Arthur dates inParis .Major themes
The novel enmeshes racism with homophobia, with an 'explicit association of Birmingham and Sodom' [James Baldwin, "Just Above My Head", New York: Dell Publishing, 1984, page 183] [Lee Edelman, "Homographesis: essays in gay literary and cultural theory", Routledge, New York & London, 1994, page 67] .
Allusions to other works
*Julia is listening to
Esther Phillips 's "From A Whisper To A Scream" in Book I. Tony, erstwhile fan ofJames Brown , goes on to playBilly Preston . Later,Dinah Shore andBrook Benton are mentioned. At the Millers at Christmas, they listen toNat King Cole 's "White Christmas" andMahalia Jackson 's "Silent Night".Ella Fitzgerald andPearl Bailey are also playing in the bar. Julia is playingMiles Davis . Arthur mentionsBillie Holiday ,Bessie Smith ,James Cleveland ,Dizzy Gillespie ,Charlie Parker ,Marian Anderson , andJohannes Brahms . Guy owns records byJelly Roll Morton ,Ma Rainey ,Django Reinhardt ,Louis Armstrong ,Duke Ellington ,Ida Cox , andFats Waller . Later, he mentionsJosephine Baker ,Charles Trenet ,Edith Piaf , andYves Montand .
*In her house, Julia is said to have the "Bible ", "Foxe's Book of Martyrs " andJacqueline Susann 's "Valley of the Dolls ". Later, Martha mentionsLewis Carroll 's "Alice in Wonderland ".Irwin Shaw 's "The Girls in Their Summer Dresses" is also mentioned. In Book Five,Henry James andAgatha Christie are mentioned.
*Frank Sinatra 's "One for the Road" is mentioned.
*Sister Dorothy Green is compared to Scarlett O'Hara in "Gone With the Wind". Later,John Wayne is mentioned.
*Julia and Arthur go to the movies and see a film starringWilliam Holden andGloria Swanson . On Hall's comeback from Korea,Yul Brynner is mentioned.
*The Wiz is mentioned at the outset of Book Five.Allusions to actual history
*The
Emancipation Proclamation is mentioned with regards to Mrs Bessie.
*Hall criticises the American government for sending blacks to theKorean War .
*Benjamin Franklin andCrispus Attucks are mentioned.
*Marcus Garvey and theJim Crow laws are mentioned. Later,J. Edgar Hoover ,Francisco Franco andSouth Africa under apartheid are mentioned. Later, Arthur mentionsMartin Luther King, Jr. andMalcom X , and later theMarch on Washington for Jobs and Freedom and John Brown. In Atlanta, theJohn Birch Society , theWhite Citizens' Council andJames Eastland are mentioned.
*Guy says he was a French soldier in theAlgerian War .Literary significance and criticism
It has been suggested that the novel links the trope of the internalisation of history to what
W.E.B. Du Bois defined as the African American's 'longing to attain self-conscious manhood.' [Lee Edelman, "Homographesis: essays in gay literary and cultural theory", Routledge, New York & London, 1994, page 62]It has been suggested that Crunch subscribes to the idea propounded by
Auguste Ambroise Tardieu andCesare Lombroso that homosexuality was inscribed upon a homosexual's flesh [Lee Edelman, "Homographesis: essays in gay literary and cultural theory", Routledge, New York & London, 1994, page 5 and 69] , when he wonders, "if his change was visible". [James Baldwin, "Just Above My Head", New York: Dell Publishing, 1984, page 226]References
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