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Title: Read other Baldwin books first.
Review: "If Beale Street Could Talk" is probably the worst novel by this very important writer. Because Baldwin was so gifted, none of his books is a complete waste of time; the scenes here that are set in church are exquisitely detailed and evocative (Baldwin had no peers when it came to writing about the black church). But the novel is wildly uneven. One scene in particular, in which Fonny and Tish's two families confront each other, reads like a script from a very bad TV show. Also, as the book progresses, the narrator -- Tish -- sounds less and less like a 19-year-old girl and more and more like a certain famous black male writer. Those seeking an introduction to Baldwin's fiction should start with "Go Tell It on the Mountain," "Giovanni's Room," "Another Country," or the vastly underrated "Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone."
