L2L Sonny’s Blues (ft. Carol Andrews)

“Sonny’s Blues”

James Baldwin

James Baldwin wrote powerful and incisive commentary on his times, in novels, plays, essays, poems, and short stories. “Sonny’s Blues” is one of his best. It is the (not-so-short) story of an algebra teacher in Harlem watching his brother teeter along the edge of a personal abyss. He ponders his difficult relationship with his brother, Sonny, who is struggling with drug addiction and an attempt at rehabilitation; the death of his own daughter; and the fate of his family and students in 1950s America. Written with Baldwin’s signature style that captures the musicality of jazz and the joys and sorrows of the blues, “Sonny’s Blues” remains as poignant today as it was a half-century ago about both race in the United States and the human condition. Dr. Carol Andrews, associate professor emerita of literature, joins Leigh and P. T. to discuss the ebb and flow of this masterpiece.