Another Country (novel)

Another Country is a novel by James Baldwin. He released it in 1962. The novel is mostly set in Greenwich Village, Harlem, and France in the late 1950s. It shows many themes that were taboo when Baldwin wrote the book. For example, in the book he wrote about bisexuality, interracial couples, and extramarital affairs.

Background
Baldwin started writing Another Country in Greenwich Village in 1948. He continued to write the novel in Paris and later in New York. Baldwin wanted to finish "Another Country" before moving again, but he went to Istanbul and finished it in 1962. In 1959, Baldwin started to become famous. He got a $12,000 grant from the Ford Foundation to help him with his work on the book.Leeming, David. 1994. James Baldwin: A biography. New York: Knopf. .

Baldwin went back to the United States in 1957. This was in part to report on the Civil Rights Movement led by Martin Luther King Jr. Baldwin admired King.James, Jenny M. 2012. "Making Love, Making Friends: Affiliation and Repair in James Baldwin's Another Country (PDF)." Studies in American Fiction 39(1):43–60. . via Project MUSE.

Baldwin wanted to show relationships deeper than King's "brotherly love".
Summary
The book uses a third-person narrator. He is also very aware of the other characters' emotions.Weatherby, W. J. 1989. James Baldwin: Artist on Fire. New York: Laurel (Dell). .

The first part of Another Country is about the jazz drummer Rufus Scott. He starts a relationship with Leona, a white woman from the South. He shows her his life and he gets her to meet the people he knows, such as his best friend. This friend is Vivaldo, a novelist who finds life difficult. Leona also meets Scott's mentor, Richard, who is more successful. She also meets Richard's wife, Cass. At the start, the relationship is not very serious. Later, it becomes more serious as they continue to live together. Rufus often becomes physically abusive of Leona. Leona has to go to a mental hospital in the South. Rufus becomes depressed. He goes back to Harlem and commits suicide, by jumping off the George Washington Bridge.

The rest of the book is about relationships between Rufus' friends, family, and other people he knows, after his death.Leeming, James Baldwin (1994), p. 201: "Rufus has been deeply wounded by the realities of racism. He is an embodiment of the curse that lurks in the American soul. Baldwin describes Rufus as 'the Black corpse floating in the national psyche'; he and what he represents must be squarely faced if we are to find peace in ourselves and our society. In Nobody Knows My Name, Baldwin had written, 'The nation, the entire nation, has spent a hundred years avoiding the question of the place of the Black man in it.' Rufus is that man, touched in one way or another by him, by his agony. Rufus is the Christ figure — the sacrificial victim — in this parable of Baldwin's 'gospel.'"Ryan, Katy. 2004. "Falling in Public: Larsen's 'Passing', McCarthy's 'The Group', and Baldwin's 'Another Country'." Studies in the Novel 36(1):95–119. . .Dunning, Stefanie. 2001. "Parallel perversions: Interracial and same sexuality in James Baldwin's Another Country." Melus 26(4):95–112. . Rufus's friends cannot understand the suicide. They feel guilty about his death. After this, the friends become closer. Vivaldo starts a relationship with Rufus's sister, Ida. There are problems in the relationship because of racial tension. Ida is bitter after her brother's death.

Eric, an actor and Rufus' first male lover, goes back to New York after living in France for many years. He met his long-time lover Yves, in France. 

Everyone's relationships become difficult in the novel. Ida starts having an affair with Ellis. Ellis is an advertising executive. He promises to help with her career as a singer. Cass has become lonely due to Richard's writing career. She has an affair with Eric after he arrives in New York. At the novel's climax, Cass tells Richard about her affair with Eric. Eric has has a sexual encounter with Vivaldo. Vivaldo learns about Ida's relationship with Ellis.

References

Category:American novels
Category:1962 books