Giovanni’s Room

Giovanni’s Room

by James Baldwin

★★★★

David is a young man living in Paris and reflecting on a doomed love affair. This poetic story, a mere 160 pages, delves not only into his relationship with Giovanni, but also into his confusion, self-loathing, loneliness, shame and more. In a flawed attempt to figure out who he is and what he truly wants, David has a tendency to hurt those around him with little or no feeling. Baldwin’s beautiful and succinct writing style pulls readers into David’s world.  

In addition to telling a tragic love story, the book touches on the complicated role women held in society in the early 20th century. As they began to gain the freedom to make their own decisions they realized that in many ways they weren’t really free. The expectation was still that they find a husband as soon as possible.

 

“I don’t see what’s so hard about being a woman. At least, not as long as she’s got a man.” “‘That’s just it,’ said she. ‘Hasn’t it ever struck you that that’s a sort of humiliating necessity?’” … ‘I began to realize it in Spain that – that I wasn’t free, that I couldn’t be free until I was attached – no committed to someone.’”

BOTTOM LINE: A haunting look at love and its many forms, this story reminds the readers of the importance of understanding who you are. The pain and heartbreak is universal when we can’t even be honest with ourselves.

“But people can’t, unhappily, invent their mooring posts, their lovers and their friends, any more than they can invent their parents.”

“Much has been written of love turning to hatred, of the heart growing cold with the death of love. It is a remarkable process. It is far more terrible than anything I have ever read about it, more terrible than anything I will ever be able to say.”

*My edition is part of the Penguin Great Loves Series. The whole series is just gorgeous!

 

Also, this was my Classics Club spin book and I’m so glad I finally read it.

Classics Club Spin #6

 

The Classics Club is hosting another Classics Spin! Pick 20 books off your Classics Club List. On Monday (the 12th) they will announce a random number and you have to read that number off the list you created sometime before July 7th. I’ve listed a mixture of books I’m dreading, ones I’m looking forward to, very old ones, relatively new ones, big ones, small ones, etc. Can’t wait to see what I’ll be reading.

We have a winner! It's #1 Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin. I’ve been meaning to read this book for a long time and it’s not a huge one, so I’m pretty happy!

1) Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

2) Cousin Bette by Honoré de Balzac

3) Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte

4) Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes

5) American Tragedy by Theodore Dreiser

6) Light in August by William Faulkner

7) Maurice by E. M. Forster

8) The French Lieutenant’s Woman by John Fowles

9) Twenty Years by Alexandre Dumas

10) North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell

11) The Quiet American by Graham Greene

12) The Trial by Franz Kafka

13) Sometimes a Great Notion by Ken Kesey

14) Framley Parsonage by Anthony Trollope 

15) King John by William Shakespeare

16) Doctor Faustus by Christopher Marlowe

17) All My Sons by Arthur Miller

18) In Dubious Battle by John Steinbeck

19) Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift

20) Germinal by Émile Zola

 

You can check out the complete details here.

 

Image from here.