The book’s main narrative line continues to follow Tish in the present – as she continues to visit Fonny in prison, as her family (who sees Fonny as one of their own) mobilizes to do whatever they can to get him out, and as his young white lawyer earns their trust through his apparently intensifying commitment. Fonny’s father (Frank) is similarly pleased, but Fonny’s extremely religious mother (Alice) and two sisters are negative and judgmental, a confrontation between the two families ending with Frank knocking Alice to the floor.

Tish worries about his reaction, and that of both their families, but is relieved when he reacts with joy and hope, and her family reacts with love and support. Her given name is Clementine, his is Alonzo, but in the same way as she goes by a nickname, so does he: everyone close to him calls him Fonny. The first, “Troubled About My Soul,” begins with Tish bringing the news of her pregnancy to her husband. The story is told from the first-person perspective of Tish, a young, pregnant black woman desperate to find ways of getting her husband out of jail and ensuring that their baby lives a life of freedom, surrounded by a loving family. First Vintage Movie Tie-in Edition, October 2018. Vintage Books, a division of Penguin Random House. The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Baldwin, James.

If beale street could talk plot