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Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone

By James Baldwin
Series: Penguin Modern Classics
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Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone is a powerful exploration of identity and self-discovery. The novel follows the life of Leo Proudhammer, an African American actor, as he confronts his past and personal challenges. Set against the backdrop of racial and social upheavals, it delves into themes of love, struggle, and the quest for understanding one's place in the world.
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Format: Paperback / softback
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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This book may appeal to you if you're interested in exploring the complexities of identity, love, and racism through a deeply personal narrative. Set both in Harlem and the wider world, it offers a powerful examination of the struggles and triumphs of an African-American actor. Baldwin's masterful storytelling and rich character development provide a poignant, reflective experience on universal themes of ambition and self-discovery.

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Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone is Baldwin's fourth novel, recounting a lifetime of grappling with love, loss, and identity.

'Everyone wishes to be loved, but in the event, nearly no one can bear it.'

At the height of his theatrical career, the actor Leo Proudhammer is nearly felled by a heart attack. As he hovers between life and death, we see the choices that have made him enviably famous and terrifyingly vulnerable. For between Leo's childhood on the streets of Harlem and his arrival into the world of the theatre lies a wilderness of desire and loss, shame and rage.

And everywhere there is the anguish of being black in a society that seems poised on the brink of racial war. In this tender, angry 1968 novel, James Baldwin created one of his most striking characters—a man struggling to become himself.

Series: Penguin Modern Classics

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Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

James Baldwin's Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone is praised for its truthful and soul-stirring writing, capturing deep family attachments and intense emotional resonance. Critics laud Baldwin as a visionary and essential novelist whose work remains timeless, with the novel offering a jazz-like exploration of his own life through reconfiguration and creative narrative elements.

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9780241342039

Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 04 October 2018

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Penguin Classics

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 22.0mm

Width: 130.0mm

Height: 197.0mm

Weight: 288g

Pages: 384

Collections

Fiction General Fiction James Baldwin Literary Fiction Penguin Books Penguin Classics Series: Penguin Modern Classics

About the Author

James Baldwin was born in 1924 in New York. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), which evokes his experiences as a boy preacher in Harlem, was an immediate success. Baldwin's second novel, Giovanni's Room (1956) has become a landmark of gay literature and Another Country (1962) caused a literary sensation. His searing essay collections Notes of a Native Son (1955) and Nobody Knows My Name (1961) contain many of the works that made him an influential figure in the Civil Rights Movement. Baldwin published several other collections of non-fiction, including The Fire Next Time (1963) and No Name in the Street (1972). His short stories are collected in Going to Meet the Man (1965). His later works include the novels Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone (1968), If Beale Street Could Talk (1974) and Just Above My Head (1979). James Baldwin won a number of literary fellowships- a Eugene F. Saxon Memorial Trust Award, a Rosenwald Fellowship, a Guggenheim Fellowship, a Partisan Review Fellowship and a Ford Foundation grant. He was made a Commander of the Legion of Honour in 1986. He died in 1987 in France

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