Sensational ... It delivers ... Touching ... Boggs handles all of this with a commanding, sure-footed authority and comprehensiveness, subtle and solemn at once, that dazzles and awes. The churn and swirl of Baldwin’s life is rendered emotionally rational as Boggs expertly details how Baldwin’s personal life pervades his work.
Lively and vigorously researched ... Boggs makes a strong case for [Baldwin's later novels] as successful formal experiments in which Baldwin once again transmuted the storms of his personal life into eloquent indictments of systemic racism ... Even-handed and critically rigorous biography ... Boggs has dug much deeper than his predecessors ... Superlative, and it should become the new gold standard for Baldwin studies.
Though it is principally concerned with Baldwin’s personal life, [Baldwin] is good at showing how the life seeps into the fiction; political events receive less attention ... Boggs’s biography makes a hugely important contribution, because it takes us to the heart of Baldwin’s message—the fear of love—and shows how urgent that problem was for him ... Boggs sometimes strains to detect homoeroticism in Baldwin’s relations with men he was friendly with ... On the whole, though, he sticks to the facts and avoids sensationalism.
Lucid, propulsive, compassionate and deeply researched ... Boggs comes about as close as anyone has to wrapping his arms around Baldwin, embracing him, if you will, in his entirety.
Magisterial ... Thorough and thoughtful ... Without doubt the most significant account of Baldwin’s life since David Leeming’s biography of the author thirty years ago, Baldwin: A Love Story is a triumphant work of scholarship and issues a robust challenge to a new generation of readers to confront the man they have claimed as their prophet.
Magisterial ... Boggs offers fresh insights throughout his final section ... He serves up a feast of gossip and speculation, which succeeds brilliantly as narrative, less so as morality tale. Boggs targets our nation’s myths and hypocrisy with dead-eyed accuracy, yet keeps aloof from his protagonist’s dalliances with vulnerable young men ... He bathes Baldwin in a halo of light while stopping shy of hagiography ... A fiery, fiercely researched biography worthy of an American genius, an indictment of enduring racism and 'homosocial panic.' Boggs teases out the aura of the divine that suffused Baldwin’s oeuvre ... Boggs’ achievement is that he allows us to make up our own minds.
Boggs’ book is the first major biography of the writer to focus on his most intimate male relationships, both romantic and platonic ... In Boggs’ hands, Baldwin’s life story feels complete.
This superb biography is more than worthy of its larger-than-life subject ... Eloquent ... At once erotic and erudite ...
Having mastered his subject, Boggs movingly presents Baldwin as the avatar of Black queer literary history and breathes new life into the genre with a volume that will enrich scholarship for the LGBTQ+ community.
Boggs takes James Baldwin’s life to be structured by the work of love ... Boggs positions himself as a champion of Baldwin. Whenever Baldwin’s behavior seems questionable, Boggs offers context to make it seem more reasonable ... There is an elephant in the room. In addition to the four great loves of Baldwin’s life, Boggs mentions in passing the steady stream of teenagers whom Baldwin slept with at every stage of his life.
Boggs’s biography demonstrates the centrality of love to all aspects of Baldwin’s life ... Boggs is able to shed new light on love’s centrality to Baldwin throughout his life ... Boggs uncovers the impact of these private loving relationships on the man, his words, and his politics.
Thorough ... Boggs shows Baldwin's impact, not only as a novelist and essayist of breathtaking power but also as a crucial voice in the Civil Rights movement ... An unrivaled homage to James Baldwin, a complex creative figure who changed American literature and thoughts about race in the 20th-century and beyond.
Based on extensive interviews with many Baldwin associates and family members, this is an emotionally rich and complex look at a writer who exemplifies the impossibility of separating the personal from the political.
Boggs’ descriptions of Baldwin and his life are beautiful and incisive ... Suggests that we can endure suffering and bear witness to the pain of our world because Baldwin lived and wrote and loved.
Standout ... The author’s rigorous research...makes for an impressive portrait of Baldwin’s life and work. It’s a fascinating and original window into the private world of one of America’s greatest writers.
