Giovanni's Room

By James Baldwin

From one of the most brilliant and provocative literary figures of the past century comes a groundbreaking novel set among the bohemian bars and nightclubs of 1950s Paris, about love and the fear of love—“a book that belongs in the top rank of fiction” (The Atlantic).

One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years

In the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality. 

David is a young American expatriate who has just proposed marriage to his girlfriend, Hella. While she is away on a trip, David meets a bartender named Giovanni to whom he is drawn in spite of himself. Soon the two are spending the night in Giovanni’s curtainless room, which he keeps dark to protect their privacy. But Hella’s return to Paris brings the affair to a crisis, one that rapidly spirals into tragedy.

David struggles for self-knowledge during one long, dark night—“the night which is leading me to the most terrible morning of my life.” With a sharp, probing imagination, James Baldwin's now-classic narrative delves into the mystery of loving and creates a deeply moving story of death and passion that reveals the unspoken complexities of the human heart.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
• Release date: Sep 17, 2013
• ISBN: 9780345806574

James Baldwin

James Baldwin (1841-1925) was an American textbook editor and author who had enormous influence in the publication of grammar and history textbooks at the beginning of the twentieth century. Born into a Quaker family in rural Indiana, he was largely self-educated. After publishing his first work, The Story of Siegfried (1882) he wrote more than fifty books, including Old Greek Stories (1895) and Fifty Famous Stories Retold (1895).

Reviews for Giovanni's Room

[dono421846 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I confess it has been a long while since I last read a true classic of literature. The quality of language and structure of Baldwin's short novel rings so true even today that it is shocking. The narrator has few redeeming qualities as he careens through his process of self-discovery inflicting catastrophic damage on those foolish enough to love him. Every aspect of gay life in the fifties still holds true today, and Baldwin applies his personal experience to good effect. It is impossible for me to imagine the impact this book would have had on an audience sixty years ago. Only his thoughts about women and gender roles generally feels dated. Unfortunately, however good this book, it lands squarely in the genre of the era in which gay characters must end badly, and they all do. That cost him half a star. Nonetheless, the descriptions of certain moments, such as the narrator's first halting sexual experience as a teenager, were breathtaking. The moment of surrender to one's true nature, after a long and fervent struggle to resist, can be cathartic, even to read about.The only item of note I took from the introduction as that the bare outline of the Giovanni's tale was inspired by a real incident during Baldwin's time in Paris.

[dreesie-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

3.5 stars--may up later, I think this book may stick with meI have heard so many raves about this book, and I think I built it way up in my mind. And there was nothing wrong with it--it is quite well done. But it didn't live up to my expectations. I also felt like it was snippets--or, rather, that there were significant snippets missing. Like David's whole first year in Paris--is that when and where he met Hella? How long and significant was their relationship when she went to Spain? How long had he and Jacques known each other? What exactly was their relationship? How long did David know Giovanni for?———Quick summary: David is an American "finding himself" in Paris after a somewhat difficult childhood (widowed father, angry aunt, father remarrying). He meets Hella and falls in love. She goes to Spain. While she is gone he meets Giovanni, a bartender at a bar his friend Jacques takes him to. He ends up moving in with Giovanni and they too have a relationship, which David doesn't intend to keep up when Hella comes back. When she comes back they get engaged, Giovanni is very upset, Hella and David move to the country because David wants to get away. ———So many questions, this book would be great in a book club or class.Did David make a mistake? Would he rather be with Giovanni? Is he marrying Hella just to have an easy average life, and he is not actually in love with her at all? Or is he the type of person that will never be satisfied with the person he is with? Is Giovanni himself running from his sad past with his wife? Is Giovanni still grieving and that is why he is struggling so much? Or does Giovanni feel he was severely punished for trying to conform to society's expectations?

[stephlaymon · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

KEY THOUGHTS
*This is one of those books that I could review everyday for a week and have something different to say or a different perspective each time I reflect.
*First of all, it is crazy brave to have written a book about the struggles of denying oneself through the through the story of homosexuality during the time in which Baldwin did. His passion to get his story out regardless of any backlash was enough to make me want to know more.
*The characters were all rather unlikable, especially the main character, but I loved how Baldwin made me understand them, and feel for them.
*I was left feeling like I see a lot of things differently and with other things to think about.
*The sprinkling of French here and there was more distracting than anything. James Baldwin may be a genius, but *I just want a good story.
*I never got as emotional as I was hoping for given the heavy sobering content.
*The ending was good stuff.
*This is definitely a book that can be reread with different effect.

[bookomaniac-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Een kort boekje, maar wel eentje dat intrigeert. Vrijmoedige behandeling van het identiteitsdilemma van een jonge blanke Amerikaan in Parijs. Gaat wel over meer dan alleen homoseksualiteit: liefde, vriendschap, vertrouwen.. Doet qua stijl wat denken aan Hemingway (the Sun also Rises), maar is absoluut een originele verwerking. Laat uiteindelijk een onbevredigde nasmaak achter, maar intussen heb je wel kunnen genieten van een rijkdom aan gevoelens en situaties. Ook interessante behandeling van het thema 'Amerikaan-zijn in Europa". Zeer mooie, subtiele dialogen.

[gabarito-3 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I really wanted to love this one more than I did. It had Baldwin's excellent style but I didn't connect with the characters very much. It has a paragraph of really surprising transmisogyny.

[squeakychu · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I guess there's a reason that James Baldwin is such a noted author. This book was amazing. It kept me up at night to finish it. The writing was simply captivating. It was deeply bleak and melancholy because that was its story, but it was so descriptive that you felt as if you were there in person to see all the action (or even body language).There is so much French in this book! I took advantage of that by sitting down with Google translate so that I wouldn't miss any nuances of this story. I am so glad that I did because I learned a bit of French at the same time.This is the story of David, an American young man who lives in1950's Paris. His girlfriend Hella goes to Spain to "find herself", and he has to contemplate what to do going forward. He is out of money so he tries to hit up his father for money, and, when that doesn't work, seeks monetary help from an acquaintance named Jacques. There were strings attached to that latter financial transaction which would not become clear until later. During the course of this story, David has to deal with his own homosexual tendencies and decide how to handle them. This sad, painful story is a must read for anyone who ever dealt with such a problem, knew anyone who dealt with such a problem, or simply wants to understand others just a bit better. To learn about others through well-written fiction is to better comprehend and empathize with those in the world around us.I only had one question about this book. David, the protagonist, was a white man. The author, James Baldwin, was a black man. I wondered why. I'm guessing the reason for this was because David's problems were enough for one story without also introducing race as an issue.

[lilycowper-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Really beautiful. JB feels the things I feel. My brain always pulls a face from my past and glues it to strong characters in my books, and this time it was Giovanni who was someone I knew from my life, who was also Italian. I couldn't stop imagining him. I was David, an American. We sometimes can't fathom the emotion, romance, and passion they show us, and we certainly can't reflect it. I don't know why Americans are so flat and shy and I wish we weren't. The beginning is about the David's family relationships which was very realistic and honest and heartbreaking. It was the one part that brought me to tears. Anyway, the whole book was moving. Disgusted by passion. Honest thoughts. I read it all in two days. Baldwin writes so well, I think I'll read all his books now. And I think I'll watch that movie about him too.

[maxernst11 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Een kort boekje, maar wel eentje dat intrigeert. Vrijmoedige behandeling van het identiteitsdilemma van een jonge blanke Amerikaan in Parijs. Gaat wel over meer dan alleen homoseksualiteit: liefde, vriendschap, vertrouwen.. Doet qua stijl wat denken aan Hemingway (the Sun also Rises), maar is absoluut een originele verwerking. Laat uiteindelijk een onbevredigde nasmaak achter, maar intussen heb je wel kunnen genieten van een rijkdom aan gevoelens en situaties. Ook interessante behandeling van het thema 'Amerikaan-zijn in Europa". Zeer mooie, subtiele dialogen.

[alisony-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My local library has just started to stock books from this great series by Penguin that seems to have been around for a while: 'Penguin Books - Great Loves'. I'd never heard of James Baldwin before, but I picked up this one to begin with as it sounded interesting.Wow - I found the writing in this novel to be so incredibly moving. Many times I went back over sentences as they seemed just so perfectly written and insightful.David is a young American living in 1950s Paris who is on a relationship break from his girlfriend. Whilst she is in Spain figuring out whether they should be together, he is wrestling with the dawning truth of his own sexuality in an era long before any level of sexual revolution, embarking on a darkly passionate affair with the haunted Giovanni. This books sweeps you into the dark turmoil of David's heart, amidst the confusion of the choices he is faced with, neither of which can ultimately bring him happiness whilst he fights between his head and his heart in an era when homosexuality was very much underground. His girlfriend inevitably returns, forcing sorrowful decisions and an ultimate truth that David can never escape from no matter how far he runs.4 stars - simply beautiful. I will be looking out for some more of these 'love gems', which include works by greats including Turgenev, Virgil, Katherine Mansfield, John Updike, Thomas Hardy and Tolstoy.

[reluctantm · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

A testament to the strength and beauty of the writing that such a navel-gazing novel held my interest.

[psalva-706031 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This was incredible. Baldwin conveys so much about humanity, shame, pain, love, and hatred in this story. The writing is open, honest, raw, and so very human. I am in awe. Definitely a new favorite.

[debbie13410 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Considering this is a homosexual love story written in the 50s it doesn't seem dated. A tragic love story.

[gypsysmom_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is one of those books that I probably would never have read if it hadn't been on the 1001 Books to Read Before You Die list and that would have been a shame. I thought the writing was beautiful and the story tugged at my heartstrings.David grew up in the USA but in his 20s he went to France to counter the aimlessness he felt at home. At the time of this book he has been there for some years. He appears to have spent his time gathering with artists and writers in bars and cafes in Paris so I don't think he found an aim there either. He did find a girlfriend, Hella, who came from Minnesota to study art in Paris. Hella had gone to visit Spain leaving David on his own in Paris. While visiting a gay bar he sees the bartender, Giovanni, with whom he is intrigued. David had one homosexual encounter when he was still a teenager with his best friend but they never continued the sexual relationship. However at the end of the night he goes home with Giovanni to the cramped, squalid room that Giovanni rents. For the next couple of months David and Giovanni live together and have a sexual relationship. Giovanni knew about Hella but he probably thought that David was through with her. However when Hella returns to Paris David leaves the room he and Giovanni share with no notice to Giovanni and meets Hella's train, continuing on to her hotel room. When they do meet Giovanni is with Jacques, a gay man who acquires young boyfriends for a while and then finishes with them. David and Giovanni have an emotional discussion when David returns to the room to get his things and it is obvious that Giovanni is heartbroken. He is also hard up because he lost his bartending job. Then David hears that Giovanni might possibly get the bartending job back but David knows the owner of the bar will exact some additional services from Giovanni if he does rehire him. David recounts all this from a cottage in the south of France where he and Hella moved for the colder months. But we also know that Hella has returned to the USA and that Giovanni is about to be guillotined as a punishment for murder because David tells us these things in the beginning. As I listened to this book it felt to me like I was waiting for a second shoe to drop; I knew it was going to happen but I didn't know under what circumstances.Baldwin's own experience as a gay man obviously is part of the reason he wrote the book but, unlike most of his other books, there are no black characters and so it is certainly not autobiographical. He did move to Paris and then the south of France but his reason was to get away from the racism he experienced in the US. Baldwin himself said that the book wasn't autobiographical; rather he had had a few drinks with a blond Frenchman who was arrested a few days later for committing murder and subsequently guillotined. When this book came out in the 1950s it must have been quite shocking because of the details of homosexual relationships. That was probably why it was chosen for the 1001 list but it still has something to offer modern readers.

[bookconcierge · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Digital audiobook performed by Dan Butler.A classic of gay literature explores the coming of age of a young American living in Paris in the 1950s. Torn between his fiancé and the bartender he meets and comes to love, David struggles to find a way to be true to himself. I don’t know how I came across this little gem of a novel. But I’m so glad I’ve read it. Baldwin’s writing is evocative and atmospheric. His characters are well drawn and reveal their strengths and weaknesses through their thoughts and actions. I did think the dialogue was a little stilted, especially between Hella and David, but then I suppose it would be, as these characters (particularly David) are trained to be circumspect about such things. And David has spent so much of his young life hiding the truth from others, and, more importantly, from himself. The tragedy that unfolds as a result of all this duplicity is perhaps inevitable, but still breaks my heart. I feel for all these characters as their dreams and aspirations are slowly destroyed. I think Hella will find her way; her eyes have been opened and she’ll be more cautious next time, but she’ll find love again. But David? I worry for David. I wonder what is next for him as the novel closes, and I can’t seem to imagine a happy ending. But perhaps I’m wrong. Perhaps he’s learned something valuable about being honest with himself and others. Perhaps he’ll get another chance to love honestly and find happiness. In today’s environment, certainly that could happen. In the 1950s?

[paul9the9well9read · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This book is incredibly moving. Written decades ago when feelings and attitudes about homosexuality were different than they are today (at least, from appearances), this book shows the trauma and devastation when society's "moral" codes restrict or change the behaviors of people who cannot be freed from them.
If ever there was a beautifully crafted and honestly told love story, this is it. Like Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, this story tells of a love affair which is doomed from the very beginning. Like Romeo and Juliet, it ends tragically. And like Romeo and Juliet, the damage extends far beyond the principle participants.
While deeply and undeniably in love with another man, the story's protagonist cannot escape his upbringing, his sexual confusion, and his inability to become fully formed as a human being and surpass the expectations and prejudices of a society that is all too quick to judge and condemn. In his weakness and inability to come to grips with who he is, David, the protagonist, hurts others, hurts himself, and ultimately "dies" to the life of joy and fulfillment he might have enjoyed had he been able to live his life honestly.
James Baldwin must have felt the same pains, both because he himself was homosexual and because no one could write a story so deep, so feeling, so emotionally devastating other than a person who had gone through the same experiences.
Throughout the book, I could not help feeling that I was not reading a novel, but instead was being privileged to read someone's deepest feelings and most crippling pain.
This book centers around a homosexual relationship, to be sure, but it is not really about that. It is about the pain of loving deeply, completely, and, in the end, hopelessly.

[runner56_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

What a wonderful yet very powerful read. David is betrothed to Hella, he is an American living in Paris waiting for his lover to join him. A chance meeting at a Paris bar with a young attractive Italian, Giovanni, results in David questioning values that he has always believed to be true. He takes a decision that will profoundly alter the course of his life, with devastating consequences.Giovanni's room poses the question, do we as humans follow convention and lead a life and follow a set of codes that is expected of us or should we throw caution to the wind and by so doing be true to our self. A story that it is impossible not to be affected by and issues as important today as when the novel was first published. Highly Recomended

[nicholasjjordan · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

It has been a long time since I’ve read a novel so lovely and ugly at the same time (Sartre or Dostoevsky maybe?). Beautiful prose, sometimes about love and self-discovery, and then also self-hatred, misogyny, violence, and the threat of violence. Overall a great book.

[lukes_171461 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

David, a young American man, sleepwalks through Paris in the years following World War II. He lives on money in a trust which his father charily metes out to him - requests for which may or may not be met. David ostensibly awaits the return of his fiancée from Spain, although it’s never clear that he looks forward to her return all that impatiently. Instead, he falls in with a couple of lecherous Parisian businessmen, whose tastes clearly run to the homoerotic. David falls in and dallies with these men; these are his own deepest proclivities as well. He’s kept his orientation secret from his father, and has remained in Paris as a way of keeping a distance from him. He does love Hella the fiancée, or thinks he does. He may see her as a way of returning to a more orthodox life, but this isn’t clear.What is clear in this work is David’s love for Giovanni, a young excitable Italian who falls hard for David. It is the tragedy of the story that David turns his back on Giovanni and leaves him in a desperate situation, with life-and-death consequences. David cannot see a way out of his prison; even the promise of his fiancée evaporates, as she leaves him, disheartened and disillusioned to return home to America.He has built a prison for himself, out of the worst materials possible: guilt and shame. He sees no escape and argues and recriminates with himself constantly. He rationalizes every move, every cruel decision, as another step in “finding himself,” or in curing himself. But in David’s case, there is no cure for selfish.The story plunges toward a grim singularity - Giovanni’s death - his desperate crime bringing down France’s ultimate sentence. David knows, or again, thinks he knows, the date; he tortures himself by imagining what Giovanni’s last minutes will be like, but he feels he cannot help from doing so. Such is the love he once had for Giovanni.In a dark and horrific sequence, David imagines Giovanni’s last moments before execution. He does this in the home he and Hella had rented in the south of France. He stares into a mirror as he packs to leave; as the daylight shifts, his own image begins to grow transparent and disappear. Fro the book:“I move at last from the mirror and begin to cover that nakedness which I must hold sacred, though it be never so vile, which must be scoured perpetually with the salt of my life. I must believe, I must believe, that the heavy grace of God, which has brought me to this place, is all that can carry me out of it.”Here I read a kind of surrender, in which David finally finds himself alone in the world, turning to a faith he does not feel, and somehow hopes that it will deliver him from his crisis. This patently will not work.And further:“And at last I step out into the morning and I lock the door behind me. … And I look up the road where a few people stand, men and women, waiting for the morning bus. They are very vivid beneath the awakening sky, and the horizon behind them is beginning to flame.”David thus accompanies the only person he’s ever loved on the bier to the next world. But he’s been riding down the slippery slope with Giovanni since the beginning of their relationship. David’s absorption in his shame makes this inevitable. Baldwin uses plain language to illuminate David’s state of mind. David’s shame, lust, guilt, and fear all bear the bright unflinching glare of David’s disgust with himself. This is remarkable writing. Baldwin wanted to lay bare the torturous rationalizations and admissions of cowardice felt by a man in this trial of life. He succeeds admirably. He succeeds also in aligning the outcome for his hero with a strict morality, in which the completely self-absorbed man ends with nothing, facing a void in the awakening, flaming sky.

[kristelh_15 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is such a well written book. The story, is of David, a white man who travels to Paris and has a relationship with a young Italian man while his girlfriend who he has asked to marry is traveling in Spain to think about the proposal. David is confused, ambiguous, and not very sure of himself. He struggles with his identity and is very unfair to the young man, Giovanni, who he has been sharing a room with during his gf's travels. The edition I read, for 1001 traveling book swap, was the Everyman's Edition and had a forward by Col Toíbín which I really enjoyed. He compared this book to The Ambassadors by Henry James and The Sun also Rises by Hemingway. So this would be a good companion read with those. It is a book that examines relationships that David has with his early childhood friends, father, girlfriend and with Giovanni. It is a book about "identity". On page 22, David states; "... the self I was going to find would turn out to be only the same self from which I had spent so much time in flight..." So "no matter where you go, there you are.". There are so many great quotes in the book. The book, of course is a LGBTQ book written in the fifties and examines the problems that a young man faced during this time. Relationships were hard to secure and the gay man often found himself really not much better off than a prostitute. Working the bars and streets for young boys and features old men referred to "queens" that is the future that awaits a young, gay man, if he cannot find a life partner. The book is well written and I enjoyed it and highly recommend it.

[k6gst · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Really great.

[castlelass · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Giovanni’s Room is James Baldwin’s 1956 classic tragedy about a man struggling with his sexuality. David, a twenty-something American living in Paris, has asked his girlfriend, Hella, to marry him. While Hella is traveling in Spain, considering his proposal, he meets Giovanni. They fall in love and live for a time in Giovanni’s room on the outskirts of Paris. David tries but fails to reconcile his feelings for Giovanni with his own (and society’s) expectation of masculinity. Giovanni truly loves David, but as much as David desires to be loved, he resists it coming from a same-sex relationship.

“People who believe that they are strong-willed and the masters of their destiny can only continue to believe this by becoming specialists in self-deception. Their decisions are not really decisions at all—a real decision makes one humble, one knows that it is at the mercy of more things than can be named—but elaborate systems of evasion, of illusion, designed to make themselves and the world appear to be what they and the world are not… I had decided to allow no room in the universe for something which shamed and frightened me.”

This book is mostly character driven. The plot is provided by the mystery of how Giovanni has ended up accused of murder (which we find out at the beginning). It is narrated in first person by David, so the reader is privy to his inner turmoil and guilt. Baldwin’s writing is masterful. Many passages are simply stunning. As a caution, characters make remarks in this book that express misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia. It is a tragedy, so the tone is sad, bordering on depressing. It is almost like watching the proverbial train wreck, knowing something bad will happen but not being able to look away. Fortunately, it is short, so the agony is not too drawn out. Recommended to readers of literary fiction or 20th Century classics.

[narshkite · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I won't start by talking much about the writing. It is James Baldwin. As always his prose is perfect. Somehow a single sentence can include desolation and hope, resignation and strength, and it does all that with economy and poetry. The perfection of the prose allowed me to focus fully on the story being told. I also won't start by telling you this is a good book. Of course its a good book. Instead I want to talk about the reading experience, because in addition to being a great novel, this is a historical document, and it gave me a good deal to reflect on.I wondered throughout how different a read this would have been in 1956 or 1986, or 2006 for that matter. In earlier times the beauty, earthiness, and simplicity of David and Giovanni's love would have been a revelation and I am sure to many a much needed validation. That was certainly true in 1986 when the public perception of sexual relationships between men was limited to the transactional sex of the bathhouses that were the focus of AIDs news coverage and the bars as depicted in Cruising. I am no historian, but I see Giovanni's Room as the beginning of a subgenre of film and literature that depicts same gender relationships which include love, connection and tenderness and are somehow therefore doomed to crushing loss and pain. I think about Midnight Cowboy, Brokeback Mountain, even Philadelphia (in which love was depicted as tragic and also very non-carnal.) And I get it. The world made a stable joyful long-term relationship between men an awfully difficult, maybe impossible, goal. And also, it was not just straight people watching and reading these tales. I imagine boys realizing same-sex attraction most often did not even think to work for deeper relationships because it was not presented as a possibility. I am not intending to straight-splain or infer that long-term committed partnerships are the be-all-and-end-all. I mention all this because I have a point here that required some foundation. Art is in the viewers perception not the artist's intention. This is not timeless, and this is a very different book now than it was when written. I assume this story was revolutionary at its time in treating love between two men as something beautiful, if doomed. For me, here in 2022 though a good deal of what I see is not the liberation but the shame and self-loathing. There are constant biting asides talking about the loathsomeness of "fairies", how appalling it was to see a man behave in an "effeminate" way. There are also constant reminders that the "good" gay men also desired women. Giovanni and David both stress how much they enjoy(ed) sex with women. It is only the old queens, depicted as predators looking to seduce straight young boys with cash and prizes who only like boys.Even the characters' physical surroundings and daily activities convey the message "homosexual=less than." Giovanni and David roll around in bed all day, accomplish nothing but drinking cognac and fucking in a decaying shell of a servant's room, barely within city limits, with peeling wallpaper and dirty sheets and pungent bodies. David and Hella, on the other hand, lie together in clean sheets, scrubbed sweet-smelling underclothing hanging from the bathroom rail. They pop out to take day trips around France or to stroll - always on the Right Bank bien sur. I understand that at the time pride was not something LGBTQ+ people could get to, what with the day to day burden of surviving and staying out of jail. That knowledge does not remove the sting of recognizing that what Giovanni and David had was considered a dream, that this was a comparatively positive look at life for gay men, that this limited and necessarily tragic existence was aspirational.The world is now a very different place and when reading this now ione sees some warts. The book remains beautiful and revolutionary it a way, and now it is a reminder of just how recently so many of the people around us were denied the opportunity to even try to have a simple, mundane life of contentment and how many people suffered as a result (David's father and Hella were both caught in the crossfire, and suffered a great deal.) Also worth mentioning, the discussion of trans women and women in general is appalling. Hella lamenting her interest in the world and begging to just be controlled by a man made me shudder. Giovanni laughing about how women need to be beaten was even worse. Audre Lorde called out Baldwin on being hateful to women and she was so right. (For a snippet of that google James Baldwin and Audre Lorde and you will find a widely available conversation between then that was published in Ebony I think or maybe it was Jett? It is short and worth the read for sure. GR won't let me link.)So at the end of this non-review where I think out my feelings in front of everyone who cares to watch, I heartily recommend that everyone read this book. It is a 4.5 rather than a 5 because the final 20ish pages were a bit ridiculously melodramatic IMO, for the misogyny when Baldwin knew better, and because there are a couple other books by Baldwin I thought were a whole lot better, and I felt the need to distinguish that -- had this book been written by a less accomplished writer than Baldwin perhaps I would have notched up to a 5. Vive la Baldwin.

[japaul22 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

[Giovanni's Room] by [[James Baldwin]]James Baldwin is a masterful writer. There is something about the way he understands and uses the English language that I find impressive but not pretentious. [Giovanni's Room] is a short novel about a young American man who is living in Paris and experimenting with love. David is engaged to a woman named Hella, but while she is traveling, he takes up with a young man named Giovanni and they develop a passionate relationship. As David attempts to untangle his feelings, lives around him fall apart. This is a short novel that packs a huge punch. The events are dramatic, and David's actions and indecision set into motion a string of events that he doesn't intend. I'm looking forward to continuing to read more by Baldwin.

[randymetcalfe · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Thing’s have gone awry for Giovanni. He is — as his former lover, David, notes — living through his last night. The guillotine arrives at dawn for Giovanni’s life and possibly also for David. Much of what follows traces David’s first days with Giovanni, the blossoming of their relationship, and its eventual decline. A decline largely brought about by David’s inability to embrace either his situation or his nature. Denial looms large and when David’s fiancé returns to Paris, David disavows Giovanni and sets the final trail of destruction in motion.It may be very hard to fully appreciate the significance of this short novel outside of its historical context. Certainly the relationship between David and Giovanni seems unhealthy from the start (though not in comparison to those engendered by Jacques or Guillaume). David’s self-hating estrangement from his own feelings makes his co-habitation of Giovanni’s room always a kind of exploitation. Exploitation of Giovanni but also of the very possibility of David’s happiness. There seems so little hope for this relationship that its flourishing in a suburb of Paris only plays up how impossible it would have been back in David’s America at that time.The differences in America between the 1950s and today, while not absolute, are nonetheless so dramatic as to make this novel almost an historical curiosity. And that’s too bad, because there is also some lovely writing here quite apart of from the overt “issues” that demand one’s attention. Gently recommended.

[crtsjffrsn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

What do you do when you want something so badly it scares you half to death? And when you don't understand why you want it in the first place?

David is an American who has run off to Europe to explore and learn new things. (Though some might say he's running from what his life would be if he stayed in the states.) While on his travels, he's met Hella, a woman from Minnesota, and he expects he'll marry her someday. That's what he should do.

But while Hella is off exploring in Spain, David does some exploring of his own. He meets Giovanni, a young bartender, one evening and the two hit it off. Before long, David moves in with Giovanni, sharing the small room he's renting, and what the two of them have goes well beyond friendship.

For David, this all feels so right but so incredibly wrong at the same time. He cares dearly for Giovanni, but the thought of being with him forever is frightening. And there's still Hella. Hella feels safe for David. And she will be coming back someday.

David will need to make a choice, and he knows what the easy decision would be. But it's all complicated by the fact that Giovanni has fallen in love with him. And David just might be too frightened to admit that he loves Giovanni back. If he abandons Giovanni, he knows his world will fall apart, but what's his responsibility to this other man anyway? He can live with the guilt, right?

---

The 1950s were certainly not an easy time to be gay. But that's true for much of history. And the struggles that some men went through, trying to reconcile who they were with society's expectations, were certainly heart wrenching. And we get a good glimpse of that here.

When reading this, it's easy to think of it as historical fiction. But that diminishes the significance of James Baldwin writing this contemporary to the time it takes place. In that regard, it's a truly groundbreaking work, although it's not exactly the most uplifting piece of literature.

I definitely give this one a recommendation, though I need to put a caveat that it's not a happiness and sunshine story. It's gritty. And it will definitely make you think.

[circlestonesbooks · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

„It became, in a way, every room I had ever been in and every room I find myself hereafter will remind me of Giovanni’s room.” (Quotation page 76) ContentDavid’s mother dies when he is only five years old and he grows up with his father and his aunt Ellen, the unmarried sister of his father. As soon as possible, he leaves and lives on his own. When he feels weary of every part of his life in New York, he moves to Paris, where he meets Hella. When he asks her to marry him, she leaves him, travels to Spain to think about her future. David stays in Paris. One evening he meets the bartender Giovanni, and from the first moment, there is a deep attraction between them. Giovanni lives in a small one-room-apartment and David moves in the same evening. When Hella comes back, David leaves Giovanni on that same day, pretending that this love affair never has happened. Theme and genreThis novel, written 1956, is about living between truth and lies, bisexuality, love, lost innocence, shame and guilt. An important topic for Baldwin’s persons is their search for their sexual identity and the related insecurity.CharactersDavid, the young American, hides his feelings for men and feels sure about Hella, wants to marry, settle down and have children. His life is a perfect vision, created for the others, but a vision, he desperately tries to believe to be true. He knows that Hella will probably come back.Giovanni is Italian, emotional and lives his feelings. That David, whom he trusts and loves, just leaves without a word destroys him.Plot and writingDavid, the first person narrator tells the story during one night, and thinking about the next day, just in the present time. The first pages contain the whole story, revealing the major points, themes and conflict. Doing so, the author is free of any timeline and suspense level. The story moves between memories and significant events in David’s childhood, teenage years, and his years in Paris, and the hours of the present night and morning. A central point of the story is Guilleaume’s bar, a place for bohemians living their sexual diversity. Baldwin uses the scenes to describe a different live, working or without work at daytime, but waiting for the evenings and living during the night. He shows a very special picture of early Parisian mornings and the locations still open or just opening, for example the famous Les Halles.ConclusionNot always highly acclaimed by literary critics, this novel for a long time now is a timeless classic. Written with empathy and sensivity, in a poetic narrative language, the story gives many questions to reflect on them, about human life, decisions, possible guilt and fate.

[adonisguilfoyle · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Evocative but enervating. A young American in Paris wrecks the lives of his girlfriend and the young Italian who falls in love with him. Seriously - I blame David for everything. He drives Giovanni to murder and starts Hella (great name!) to ranting about the condition of woman. Hey, if you don't want to get married, don't bother, love. Beautiful writing, full of dark truths - 'the world is mostly divided between madmen who remember and madmen who forget. Heroes are rare' - and definitely insightful, but very, very depressing.

[dbsovereign · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Please don't read this until AFTER you come out of the closet - it might just scare you back in there...And it is profoundly depressing. But stunning too!

[bibleblaster · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Baldwin consistently writes passages in no matter what I read by him (I re-read "Sonny's Blues" recently, too) that absolutely blow me away with their brilliance. This was no exception.

[hippielunatic · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A fantastic exploration of how we choose society's expectations over our own, even in the face of happiness.