This is the first Baldwin piece I’ve read since “Go Tell It on the Mountain” in high school. Wow! Even the fiction I’ve read and enjoyed recently doesn’t hold a candle to the ability of Baldwin to suck me into the story and the characters immediately and in a visceral way. How? I have no idea. It’s probable the same intangible difference between a mediocre, pretty good, and an amazing singer. Some of it is the apparently quality but other aspects are just something about it that moves you in your core inexplicably. I have got to read more Baldwin! Probably start be rereading “Mountain”.