'This is the work of a born storyteller at the height of his powers' - Edmund White, Washington Post
This is the ficional story of the great gospel singer Arthur Montana. Arthur was found dead in the basement of a London pub at the age of thirty-nine, yet he lives on in this memoir. Written by Hall, his brother and manager, it is in part a subtle and moving study of the treacherous ebb and flow of memory.
Set against a vividly drawn background of the civil rights movement of the sixties, Just Above My Head explores how Arthur discovers his love for Jimmy - 'with his smile like a lantern and a voice like Saturday nights' - and portrays how profoundly racial politics can shape the private business of love.
'The best of his work ... stands comparison with any of its period to come out of the United States' ― The Times
'Baldwin is one of the few genuinely indispensable American writers'― Saturday Review
'If Van Gogh was our 19th-century artist-saint, James Baldwin is our 20th-century one' -- Michael Ondaatje
"A work of passion... Glimpses of family life in Harlem, rapturous music-making in the churches, movements of uneasiness in even the most casual meetings between whites and blacks--scenes that Baldwin seems preternaturally gifted in understanding."--The New York Times Book Review.
