Giovanni’s Room – James Baldwin
100-Word (or Less) Synopsis: In 1950s Paris, David begins a love affair with long-lasting repercussions for himself, his lover and his fiancé.
Expectation: A breezy story about forbidden love.
Reality: A dark exploration of internal homophobia buoyed by Baldwin’s phenomenal writing and observations about male desire.
Recommended For: Gay men, but really all members of the LGBTQ+ community, plus those people wanting to read more diverse authors.
Why I Read It: Highly recommended from multiple people, and I had never read a novel by James Baldwin.
My take:
“Giovanni’s Room” is a novel of dichotomies. It is at times hopeful yet pessimistic, beautiful but often ugly, analytical and erratic.
You are warned early there will be no happy ending, but I was still surprised at the pain James Baldwin imposes on the three main characters — David, Giovanni and Hella — although the story’s outcome is more true-to-life for the time than it would seem to be today (in most parts of the world, anyway).
If you haven’t figured it out already, “Giovanni’s Room” is a challenging read, but not because of Baldwin’s beautiful prose and the way he explores David’s psyche.
Like any true classic, you can see how it has inspired similar art and artists, including “Brokeback Mountain,” John Boyne, Philippe Besson and Garth Greenwell, and helped cement Baldwin as an astute observer of the experiences of marginalized people.
While the protagonist, David, is not likeable, he is relatable to the legions of queer people that wasted countless hours, days or years of their lives trying to reconcile who they are with who they want to be.
His masculinity and sexuality are intertwined so deeply that it creates a toxic swirl for all those around him and leads to the destruction of his happiness and that of Giovanni and Hella.
At the end of the story, I couldn’t help but wonder what will become of David. Will he learn to accept himself and make it to old age? Or will the societal pressures to “be a man” become too great a burden for him to live with.
I was hypnotized by one particular section in part two — Giovanni’s confrontation of David — that I had to listen to it twice to ensure I was gathering all the details the characters throw callously at one another as the undercurrent of passion still hums beneath the scene. It is masterful and tense and breathtaking; I will think about it for years.
While the audiobook is fantastically narrated by Dan Butler, this is a story that is probably best served through the written word as many of the nuances in Baldwin’s writing will be missed when listening.
“Giovanni’s Room,” has exposed me to the genius of Baldwin, although I recognize this story, which centers on mostly white characters, is an outlier compared to the rest of his work. Still, this has whet my appetite to want to experience more of Baldwin’s bibliography. Where should I go next?
Rating (story): 5/5 stars
Rating (narration): 5/5 stars
Format: Audiobook (library loan)
Dates read: July 20 – July 24, 2020
Multi-tasking: Not recommended
