Tales of the Out and the Gone, by Amiri Baraka

In Tales of the Out and the Gone, Amiri Baraka gives his readers the political situations, racial tensions, and frank language expected after so many decades of writing. What this collection of short stories emphasizes, however, is the author’s remarkable talent for penning quick dialogue, introspective reflection, and lyrical prose. Writing is often regarded as one of the less abstract arts, but Baraka smoothly courses between narratives of mismatched military men in the first half of Tales and sudden poetic interjections by omniscient, conceptual characters in the latter half. He writes without his or his characters’ ever misstepping, probably because, as Baraka states, “I don’t think you can make the most penetrating use of language—as content or form—without it being rhythm-sprung.”

And Baraka’s language penetrates. The fluid words propel the reader with their enigmatic, burning drive that moves the beating heart along with the reading eyes. Don’t be surprised to find your body moving while pouring over the stories—they are as much music as they are literature. Baraka, the beatnik turned black nationalist turned Marxist turned college instructor who never stopped writing, inks his pages with gripping sensations of wild tension, smart wit, befuddling curiosities, and absolute voids that come to define his characters’ spaces. Like a Siren, Tales lures readers in with its beautiful song and doesn’t let the captured go free until the book is finished with them.

by Jonathan Mason