Giovanni's Room (Vintage International)

I’ve been wanting to read this for a long time, and I’m glad I finally did. I didn’t know much about it going in, but I knew it would be sad (which is kind of my thing). Set in 1950s Paris, this is the story of David, an American on the brink of marriage. His fiancé has gone off to Spain to decide if she wants to marry him, and on his own he meets a handsome Italian bartender named Giovanni. Giovanni is clever, and passionate, and never wants David to leave him. David knows he cannot stay forever, but he wants this time as long as he can have it. They live together in Giovanni’s small room, and over time David starts to feel stifled, while Giovanni just wants to be there with him. Things do go horribly south for the two, and for them each individually. Though the ending is quite sad, I do feel that David found himself in that small room.

GIOVANNI'S ROOM was not James Baldwin's first novel; his debut came three years before with GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN. Nor was it the first post-war novel to deal with homosexuality; Gore Vidal addressed the issue in 1948's THE CITY AND THE PILLAR.But Vidal, as good a writer as he is, is not a poet. And GIOVANNI'S ROOM is the work of a poet.Baldwin's writing is uncommonly beautiful. Even when dealing with the darkest of emotions and the most devastating of tragedies, his prose soars like an eagle above the usual form of the novel, giving the events a depth and meaning that, to my mind, most forcibly recall Tennessee Williams; it is a shame that none of Baldwin's novels or plays were ever filmed.The fairly simple story concerns David, an expatriate American in Paris, aged about twenty-seven or so and somewhat of a drifter. He is involved with a young woman named Hella, whom he has asked to marry him; at the start of the story, which is told in flashback, Hella is off traveling in Spain, considering David's proposal, which despite the appearance of importance she is giving it, has a hollow ring to it.While Hella is gone, David, needing money, becomes involved in the homosexual world of Paris. He does not go so far as to have sex with any of the men, but he learns quickly how to use them to get the money that his father keeps refusing to send him from the States.One night, with one of these acquaintances, a middle-aged businessman named Jacques, David goes to a bar owned by Jacques's friend Guillaume, and meets the new barman, a beautiful young Italian named Giovanni. The two young men hit it off extremely well; without revealing too much, suffice it to say that the evening ends in Giovanni's room, in his bed.The remainder of the novel deals with David's inner turmoil over the fact that he has fallen head-over-heels in love with Giovanni, a love, though this is not said directly, much deeper than whatever it is he feels (felt?) for Hella. Later on, naturally, Hella returns to Paris, and David, afraid to face Giovanni, simply abandons him and takes up with Hella at her hotel.The inevitable happens, and Giovanni and Hella eventually meet on the street. Giovanni is with Jacques, and they invite David and Hella out for a drink. Hella, perhaps sensing something, begs off on the grounds that she does not feel well. David takes her back to her hotel.The following evening, David returns to Giovanni's room and attempts to explain to him why he must make his life with Hella, but at this point it is obvious that he is trying to convince himself.The novel turns tragic after David and Giovanni separate forever. Giovanni commits a murder and is sent to the guillotine; David and Hella rent a house in the south of France, but inevitably, one night, David disappears and takes up with a sailor. Hella tracks him down and finds him, very drunk, with the sailor, in a gay bar. Embittered, she leaves for the United States almost immediately. David, who appears to be planning to stay in Paris, leaves the house and goes to the bus stop to wait for the bus to the train station.I don't know to what extent David's self-loathing mirrored Baldwin's, or if Baldwin felt that way at all, but the really remarkable thing is that all of the people in this novel, American, French, and Italian, are white, yet Baldwin, who seems to have had an almost musical ear for dialogue, speaks in all these different voices with amazing accuracy and precision.This is an astonishing work of art. To describe it as a novel about homosexuality is to trivialize it. It is a deeply human story about people with flaws, and how these flaws sometimes can be our undoing.

“Nobody can stay in the garden of Eden… I wonder why”. This was said by James Baldwin in his semi-autobiography, Giovanni’s Room. Giovanni’s Room can be known as a controversial novel which is the case with most of Baldwin’s books. Although the book may seem difficult, it is a mind changing book to read since it touches up on a subject that was not widely accepted at its time. Baldwin completed Giovanni’s Room in 1956, but there was a supposed issue. The main problem that Baldwin’s publisher had with the novel was that its focus on the main character’s romantic relationship with a man. Baldwin continued with the story line that was inspired by his personal life and had the book published. In doing so Giovanni’s Room later inspired many readers who related to the author. “But this time when I touched him something happened in him and in me which made this touch different from any touch either of us had ever known.” (Baldwin 7) This shows that the main character, David, was experiencing his first infatuation with his friend Joey. That was the first time David had ever felt something towards a boy that he including Joey have never felt before. Baldwin gives the idea that David thinks his affection toward men is shameful and reckless, but at this moment it seems that he isn’t as one-sided as he believes. Another big focus was the masculinity and how men were seen. In David’s own eyes he did not see himself as a homosexual and that his love affairs didn’t mean anything, but this was not true. Therefore, he believed he still had a sense in manliness. "I was not suggesting that you jeopardize, even for a moment, that… immaculate manhood which is your pride and joy." (Baldwin 30) This was said by one of David’s older friends Jacques, who is described to be 40-50 years old. Jacques’ diction is interesting because of the word “immaculate”. He says this because he asks David to invite the bartender over with them but makes fun saying, he wouldn’t want David to “jeopardize” or risk his manhood. He’s making fun because Jacques and David are alike and that he knows how David sees his sexuality as immoral and a loss of masculinity. At the time it would’ve been considered just that, but it is now it is mostly widely accepted. In conclusion, Giovanni’s Room is a controversial but insightful novel by James Baldwin that should be read and talked about by more. It goes through the life of David and his sexuality in his life and the 50’s but it is also based on the life of Baldwin which makes it a semi-autobiography.

I have always wanted to read a JamesBaldwin book and I am.so glad I pick this ONE b\c it was easy follow but yet had Me in suspense wanting to know what happens next. Even though it was written a long time ago it made me feel.as if it was happening in real time.