David Ross, January 18th, 1991, book review of Talking at the Gates, Volume 55, Issue 3, p. 8

James Campbell recreates brilliantly the Paris of 1949, where James Baldwin was a young American in Talking at the Gates. He was trying to write, and was delighted to discover that the French did not discriminate against him on grounds of race. His homosexuality was also no problem. For someone who had suffered as part of two minorities this was liberation. I first met him in the decrepit Hôtel de Verneuil, which still stands, where I lived along with a group of Americans and young people of other nationalities. A major concern of most of them, including Jimmy Baldwin, was whether the Left Bank was significant as it has been in Ernest Hemingway’s time. Baldwin was a delightful person but utterly self-centred. He was irritated at being identified with or even reminded of black struggle, even proclaiming that he was not a black writer […] Baldwin could and did write rhythmic, singing prose and he took the style of a hot gospel preacher to the struggle for civil rights. This biography will deepen understanding of his writing and his politics. It is a valuable contribution for anyone concerned with literature and politics in our time’.