Both Baldwin and his first novel burst onto the literary scene, fully formed, in 1953. The dual narrative of a man struggling with both God and himself, the honesty, and the mastery of a previously overlooked form of language born of crisis and pain shook readers to the core. Henderson (African American and American literature, U. of Delaware) has carefully chosen these essays to describe its background of national ideals and political agendas, the politics of sexuality, race and gender, and paradigmatic shifts and cultural inventions. Topics include the relationship of the book to the civil rights movement, homoerotic desire and betrayal under Black Nationalism, African intentions, the reclamation of the homoerotic as spiritual, the "Eve" complex, the politics of testifying, salvation and gender within the gothic, and issues of representation. Henderson provides a very satisfying selected bibliography of scholarship and criticism. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)