Baldwin is so experienced an essayist, and Hall Montana so convenient an observer, that Hall's rhetorical social commentary takes an unwanted precedence over the story of Arthur Montana [in Just Above My Head]…. Arthur's life never seems as vivid as Hall's, though clearly the younger brother is meant to be the novel's hero. Nor does Julia Miller, the child preacher who must suffer incest and the fathomless guilt of matricide, ever seem a real person until she becomes a stable adult, and one of Hall's best friends. (p. 49)

The reader feels that no sin can go unforgiven, no matter how many social wrongs remain unrighted. It is an achievement to construct acceptance out of suffering and frustration. But it is only half the achievement that Baldwin desired.

As in his 1968 novel, Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone, Baldwin has used the life of a fictional performing...