It may be a heretical opinion, but my eyes glazed over when Baldwin waxes religious. He has pages and pages of metaphors about "trembling" and "the Saints" that are beautifully written and subtle, but eventually start to seem like extraneous religious fluff. I couldn't help but skim past some of these sections to see when the book would finally get to the point. Despite this, the book has deep character portraits, and integrates the interaction between American racism and the lives of the people portrayed expertly and subtly.