This is perhaps one of the most gorgeous, and hence most devastating, portrayals of love that I have read of Baldwin’s, certainly that I have read ever. Not only between Tish and Fonny but also between their family, this novel, though terrible and tragic, is bursting with love. Baldwin doesn’t quite let us imagine that their awful situation was resolved, but it is the pride and devotion and sympathy the characters exhibit, each so whole and real, that carried all the pain and love through this narrative. An incredible novel. 

Time: the word tolled like the bells of a church. Fonny was doing: time. In six months’ time, our baby would be here. Somewhere in time Fonny and I had met; somewhere, in time, we had loved; somewhere, no longer in time, but, now, totally, at time’s mercy, we loved.