pagesofjulia

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just open your current read to a random page and share a few sentences. Be careful not to include spoilers!

In this striking collection of essays by James Baldwin, I found several noteworthy passages, truths, maxims; but I chose this one especially for you, because of its unique and arresting imagery. He’s describing various categories, by age, of the inmates he encounters in a Parisian prison.

And men not so old, with faces the color of lead and the consistency of oatmeal, eyes that made me think of stale cafe-au-lait spiked with arsenic, bodies which could take in food and water – any food and water – and pass it out, but which could not do anything more, except possibly, at midnight, along the riverbank where rats scurried, rape.

If that doesn’t paint a picture and send a shiver up you, I don’t know what to say.

Filed under: tuesday teasers | Tagged: nonfiction, race |