Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Giovanni's Room
Book Review: A masterpiece about love and self-acceptance
Summary: 5 Stars
David is an American living in 1950's Paris, trying to flee from bad memories of home with his father. He has a finacée Hella, who has just left for Spain to make sure that she is ready to wed David. While she's away, David allows his urges to take him to one a gay bar, where he meets Giovanni, a young, Italian bartender. They strike up a friendship, and for financial reasons, David moves into Giovanni's tiny room.Throughout the novel, David is conflicted with his feelings of love, loathing and guilt for Giovanni and for his own homosexuality. He loves Hella, too, but desparately wants to find out if her love is what he truly desires, almost willing her to save him. Author James Baldwin uses a very flowing style to permeate his novel with these emotions, allowing the reader to both sympathize and distrust Giovanni and David. One is strong and sure of himself; the other is fighting a battle in his head over what he feels. This creates one of the better novels dealing with someone coming to terms with his or her own sexuality.
Book Review: A milestone that stands the test of time
Summary: 5 Stars
I read Giovanni's Room originally when I was in my 20's and loved it.
Now at 51, I just reread it. This time around it struck me as a tad overwrought, but still a wonderful book. It's certainly one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read. The prose just flows gracefully along like a Brahms Intermezzo. Baldwin captures the anguish of a man struggling with his sexuality and the impact that has on others beautifully. His insights into human nature are keen. Despite being written in the 50's when homosexuality was quite taboo, the book has aged remarkably well and in no way feels dated. Highly recommended.
Book Review: A true masterpiece
Summary: 5 Stars
David is an American living in 1950's Paris. He has a finacée Hella, who recently left for Spain to make sure that she is ready to marry him. While she's away, David meets Giovanni, a young Italian bartender. They strike up a friendship, and for financial reasons, he moves into Giovanni's tiny room. But, the friendship grows into something more, and David must decide which life he wants to lead.Throughout the novel, David is conflicted with his feelings of love, loathing and guilt for Giovanni. He loves Hella, too, but desparately wants to find out if her love is what he truly desires, almost willing her to save him. Author James Baldwin uses a very flowing style to permeate his novel with these emotions, allowing the reader to both sympathize and distrust Giovanni and David. One is strong and sure of himself; the other is fighting a battle in his head over what he feels.
"Giovanni's Room" is one of the great novel dealing with someone coming to terms with his or her own sexuality and all the emotions associated with it. A truly fine novel.
Book Review: A visit to the wine cellar for a vintage wine
Summary: 5 Stars
Now and then it is healthy and rewarding AND enlightening to revisit some of the books in our libraries that are time-tested, durable pinnacles of literature. Such is the case of opening the cover of James Baldwin's inimitable, cherished novel GIOVANNI'S ROOM. Baldwin died in Paris in 1987 after gifting us with great novels and strong social commmentary. It is only fitting to return to the Paris of this wonderfully rich novel when the need to reflect on how writers of stature had the courage to begin the genre of novels dealing with same sex relationships in a manner of pure literature. GIOVANNI'S ROOM is a fluid, nonlinear exploration of alienation: the narrator is living in Paris (having escaped the US with the smilingly shallow American image descried by Parisians), heads toward a "comfortably normal courtship/engagement" with a very normal fellow American girl also living in Paris/Spain, and quite by accident encounters his repressed sexual self when he meets Giovanni, an expatriated Italian. The subcultures Baldwin details are palpably present on every page - many characters seem like enemies until their roles in the journey of these two men unfold and clarify. The title of the book is well chosen: Giovanni's room which he shares with David our narrator is claustrophobic, unkempt, dour, and threatening - an apt description of the mental environment this stumbling act of finding a new type of love creates. Baldwin lets us know from the start that we are entering a doomed affair of the heart and it is this atmospheric, eloquently written memoir that adds to the sense of the inevitable isolation that makes this a great novel.
Enough cannot be said about the beauty of Baldwin's prose, the richness of his terse description of the city of Paris, his uncanny ability to paint characters that are wholly three-dimensional. This book merits frequent re-visits. It is a rare vintage wine.
Book Review: Amazing book. You will want to read it more than once!
Summary: 5 Stars
I loved this book. It is one of the top ten gay and lesbian novels of all times. I was shocked to learn that Amazon was instituting a new anti-gay policy and censoring it from search lists. Hopefully people can still find this gem.