Talking at the gates Book

A little redundant at times (how many times do we need to read the number of pages the FBI had on Baldwin?). Although there isn't much on his early life, his personal life really comes through in the discussion of his work, in this way the reader really does get a good feeling for the kind of person Baldwin was in the different phases of his life and his contribution to American literature and culture. It ends in a heartbreakingly intimate way that I'm not sure is consistent with the work as whole but it definitely conveys Campbell's feelings about the author and relates how thoroughly Baldwin's unique fire, passion, humanity and warmth still touches his readers and admirers.