4.0
Giovanni's Room
ByPublisher Description
James Baldwin’s groundbreaking novel whose frank exploration of sexuality and self-acceptance was decades ahead of its time—named one of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the past 100 years
“Baldwin writes . . . with unusual candor and yet with such dignity and intensity.”—The New York Times
In 1950s Paris, a young American expatriate finds himself caught between his repressed desires and conventional morality. David has just proposed marriage to his American girlfriend, but while she is away on a trip he becomes involved in a doomed affair with a bartender named Giovanni. With sharp, probing insight, James Baldwin’s classic novel delves into the mysteries of love and tells a deeply moving story that reveals the unspoken complexities of the human heart.
“Baldwin writes . . . with unusual candor and yet with such dignity and intensity.”—The New York Times
In 1950s Paris, a young American expatriate finds himself caught between his repressed desires and conventional morality. David has just proposed marriage to his American girlfriend, but while she is away on a trip he becomes involved in a doomed affair with a bartender named Giovanni. With sharp, probing insight, James Baldwin’s classic novel delves into the mysteries of love and tells a deeply moving story that reveals the unspoken complexities of the human heart.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesGiovanni's Room Reviews
4.0
“📖 Another devastatingly beautiful James Baldwin book. I didn’t realize this was written in the 1950s so I was little thrown off with the timeline at first. This wasn’t particularly enjoyable to read since not much really happens plot wise and it’s pretty melancholy throughout. But it’s obviously an important book and examination of shame, internalized homophobia, etc etc. Looking forward to reading more Baldwin. Some standout quotes:
- I had decided to allow no room in the universe for something which shamed and frightened me. I succeeded very well—by not looking at the universe, by not looking at myself, by remaining, in effect, in constant motion.
- Then, perhaps, life only offers the choice of remembering the garden or forgetting it. Either, or: it takes strength to remember, it takes another kind of strength to forget, it takes a hero to do both. People who remember court madness through pain, the pain of the perpetually recurring death of their innocence; people who forget court another kind of madness, the madness of the denial of pain and the hatred of innocence; and the world is mostly divided between madmen who remember and madmen who forget. Heroes are rare.
-Love him,” said Jacques, with vehemence, “love him and let him love you. Do you think anything else under heaven really matters?”
About James Baldwin
JAMES BALDWIN (1924–1987) was a novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic. His first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, appeared in 1953 to excellent reviews, and his essay collections Notes of a Native Son and The Fire Next Time were bestsellers that made him an influential figure in the growing civil rights movement. Baldwin spent much of his life in France, where he moved to escape the racism and homophobia of the United States. He died in France in 1987, a year after being made a Commander of the French Legion of Honor.
Other books by James Baldwin
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