Giovanni's Room

I read this for the 2017 Read Harder Challenge: Read a Classic by an author of color. And I was reminded, of course, that classics are classic for a reason. This is a moving book, a pleasure to read, and I will probably read it again, just like I revisit Lolita every year or so. This review from the New Yorker is also worth reading.

C'est la troisième fois que je lis ce roman, le deuxième de James Baldwin. La première fois, j'avais une vingtaine d'années et je l'avais lu en français. La deuxième fois, plus récemment, je l'avais relu, mais en anglais cette fois. Pour cette troisième lecture, j'ai à nouveau choisi la langue anglaise, d'autant que j'ai décidé de lire dans l'ordre les oeuvres principales de James Baldwin.

James Baldwin nous raconte une histoire qui peut aujourd'hui paraître banale : un américain trentenaire en séjour à Paris rencontre un jeune serveur italien avec lequel il vit une brève passion, avant de retrouver sa fiancée américaine de retour d'un séjour en Espagne. C'est d'abord une belle et tragique histoire d'amour dans le Paris des années 50. C'est aussi un témoignage sur cette époque qui peut nous paraître lointaine désormais. C'est en tout cas un livre magnifique, dont le récit est servi par une plume splendide.

fragments of my thoughts while reading

I felt so apprehensive and anxious after read the last page of part 1. I didn't want to flip the page, I didn't want to continue, I didn't want to know what was going to happen next. I feel like that physical reaction of pure anxiety is a testament to how astounding this book is.

there's something so tender and heartbreaking in the many ways that “where have you gone?” is phrased. whenever I read about love, especially when one lover is in turmoil, and their lover asks them “where have you gone?” or “where did you go?” or simply saying “come back to me”, I know they're not talking about physical proximity but matters of the mind and heart, and it breaks me. I don't know what this book has done to me but I feel like a shell of myself. I'm just sad. i'm sad about giovanni, i'm sad david couldn't be his true self, im said about hella being left in the dark, i'm sad for people that have to hide who they are. it's just upsetting and irritating and it makes me feel helpless. I just feel empty.

james baldwin was an amazing writer, I don't think I've felt whatever it is that i'm currently feeling about a book. it's different from oewbg, I felt more hope in that despite everything. this feels final with no room for redemption or peace.

This is a story of a young American man living abroad in Paris and coming to terms with his homosexuality in the 1950's. The narrator and protagonist, David, is drawn into an affair with a young Italian bartender working in Paris, which throws his life into turmoil. The tale is told in retrospect from a pivotal moment which we can't understand fully until we get the whole story. David as a narrator gives us a candid view of his confusion, his shame, his desire to resist a path that he knows will be condemned by others and which he fears will make him despicable. James Baldwin's writing is operatic. There is so much emotion and drama in David's situation that, although he is trying to keep his cool, he is not fooling anyone, least of all his girlfriend Hella. You will need Kleenex when you read this book.

La Chambre de Giovanni offre un magnifique triangle amoureux, écrit de façon extrêmement poétique et prenante, qui vous happe au sein de cette tempête de sentiments. Le livre joue avec la bisexualité (ou homosexualité) de son personnage principal, source de honte, d'interrogations, pêché impossible à assumer réellement, possibilité qu'il se refuse, le tout de façon magistrale. On souffre de ses interrogations, de même que pour les personnages croisés, tout en découvrant un Paris désormais disparu. A lire vraiment, un texte magnifique.

sometimes with literary fiction i tend to not grasp the true meaning of the writing due to the fact that i'm so eager to finish the book; opposed to genuinely comprehending & enjoying the story/writing. this novel taught me to slow down and really take in the words how i feel because of them. this novel made me think. it showed me that i don't always need to rush just so i can say i've finished a book in a certain amount of time. this novel was so well written and the story was beautifully tragic. i felt for both david and giovanni. love can be cruel.

Somewhere in Giovanni's Room, there is a great story. But it falls short of having an emotional effect due to the pacing being constrained by its length, not allowing for the main relationship to have much weight to it.

It doesn't feel rushed, but more unearned in how the two fall in love with each other; it is a product of lust rather than something born out of intimacy and connection due to their social isolation. None of the characters are as fleshed out as they should be. Giovanni doesn't have much character to him for much of the book, falling into the unfortunate archetype of the manic pixie dream boy who lacks any depth until the last third of the book. David's character is only interesting when he's not with Giovanni, where he struggles with the shame he feels for loving another man and the impending doom he bears with his fiancee coming to visit. But there is not much of a connection between these two - the plot almost mandates they fall in love too quickly and skims over much of the crucial aspects of how that came to be.

The pacing is the problem with the book. It is much too short to give the depth that is needed for any of these relationships to flourish. The emotional beats are there, and if the previous chapters didn't suffer from the issues it had, it would have been effective. It would have been devastating. I felt cold for not feeling much during these brutally emotional moments of cowardice and despair, but I could exactly pinpoint why. This goes to show how great Baldwin is at his craft - his prose his excellent, with every sentence so dense with information but with the craft of a poem. He can take some of the most mundane moments of everyday life and make them full of meaning. The first chapter especially - which prepared me to expect a novel that would become one of my all time favorites - manages to weave in so much about David's life. The way sex was written didn't remind me of smutty literature, but instead something that was a beautiful augmentation of love; how it is awkward, but the connection between the two could be felt that it was inevitable. The act itself was described in a way that didn't glorify the details, but the emotions involved.I was almost in tears by the end. I understood where David came from, his guilt about loving a man and disappointing his father by telling him. It was heartbreaking, but unfortunately the book does not keep the emotional momentum it had in the first chapter.

I can appreciate Baldwin's craft - but I cannot find myself enjoying it. I can appreciate the fact that he made same-sex love a universal story, where the focus isn't on hiding, but on embracing the human aspect of love, but I wanted more. I didn't get enough of the relationship to really feel the impact it wanted to have, and behind Baldwin's beautiful prose and raw emotion, was a story that was simply too short on the intimate details.

If I was reading this when it was published, or even 20 years ago I feel very confident this would be a 5 star read for me.

The misogyny was one of things I really struggled with reading this in 2021. And the cruel, self preservation that David exhibited over and over.

However the heart wrenching story of these gay men struggling to exist in a world that does all it can to make it impossible for them to be themselves strikes you right to the core.

Definitely an important piece of literature and looking forward to reading more of Baldwin's work.