Lettre a Jimmy

Written on the twentieth anniversary of James Baldwin s death, Letter to Jimmy is African writer Alain Mabanckou s ode to his literary hero and an effort to place Baldwin s life in context within the greater African diaspora.
Beginning with a chance encounter with a beggar wandering along a Santa Monica beacha man whose ragged clothes and unsteady gait remind the author of a character out of one of James Baldwin s novels Mabanckou uses his own experiences as an African living in the US as a launching pad to take readers on a fascinating tour of James Baldwin s life. As Mabanckou reads Baldwin s work, looks at pictures of him through the years, and explores Baldwin s checkered publishing history, he is always probing for answers about what it must have been like for the young Baldwin to live abroad as an African-American, to write obliquely about his own homosexuality, and to seek out mentors like Richard Wright and Ralph Ellison only to publicly reject them
later.
As Mabanckou travels to Paris, reads about French history and engages with contemporary readers, his letters to Baldwin grow more intimate and personal. He speaks to Baldwin as a peera writer who paved the way for his own work, and Mabanckou seems to believe, someone who might understand his experiences as an African expatriate.
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Scrisa la cea de-a douazecea aniversare a mortii lui James Baldwin, Scrisoarea catre Jimmy este scriitorul african Alain Mabanckou oda eroului sau literar si un efort de a plasa viata lui Baldwin in context in marea diaspora africana. Incepand cu o intalnire intamplatoare cu un cersetor care rataceste de-a lungul unui barbat de la Santa Monica, ale carui haine zdrentuite si mers nesigur ii amintesc autorului unui personaj dintr-un roman al lui James Baldwin. Mabanckou isi foloseste propriile experiente ca un african care traieste in SUA ca lansare tampon pentru a lua cititorii intr-un turneu fascinant al vietii lui James Baldwin.