Reviews tagging Suicide

Giovanni’s Room, by James Baldwin

10 reviews

oliverlang's review against another edition

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emotional sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

It feels rude to give this book anything other than 5 stars. It made me feel so many different types of ways; I felt joy in moments and heartache in others. Another book with unlikeable characters but profoundly human ones.

I'm just going to share some of my favourite excerpts in lieu of a wordy review:

'Love him,' said Jacques, with vehemence, love him and let him love you. Do you think anything else under heaven really matters? And how long, at the best, can it last, since you are both men and still have everywhere to go? Only five minutes, I assure you, only five minutes, and most of that, helas! in the dark. And if you think of them as dirty, then they will be dirty-they will be dirty because you will be giving nothing, you will be despising your flesh and his. But you can make your time together anything but dirty, you can give each other something which will make both of you better-forever-if you will not be ashamed, if you will only not play it safe.' He paused, watching me, and then looked down to his cognac. 'You play it safe long enough,' he said, in a different tone, 'and you'll end up trapped in your own dirty body, forever and forever and forever-like me.' And he finished his cognac, ringing his glass slightly on the bar to attract the attention of Madame Clothilde.

I smiled. "Things my father never told me.' 'Somebody,' said Jacques, 'your father or mine, should have told us that not many people have ever died of love. But multitudes have perished, and are perishing every hour-and in the oddest places!-for the lack of it.' And then: 'Here comes your baby. Sois sage. Sois chic.'

I began to see that, while what was happening to me was not so strange as it would have comforted me to believe, yet it was strange beyond belief. It was not really so strange, so unprecedented, though voices deep within me boomed, For shame! For shame! that I should be so abruptly, so hideously entangled with a boy; what was strange was that this was but one tiny aspect of the dreadful human tangle, occurring everywhere, without end, forever.

TW: Suicide Reference

I did not know what to do or where to go. I found myself at last along the river, slowly going home.

And this was perhaps the first time in my life that death occurred to me as a reality. I thought of the people before me who had looked down at the river and gone to sleep beneath it. I wondered about them. I wondered how they had done it-it, the physical act. I had thought of suicide when I was much younger, as, possibly, we all have, but then it would have been for revenge, it would have been my way of informing the world how awfully it had made me suffer. But the silence of the evening, as I wandered home, had nothing to do with that storm, that far-off boy. I simply wondered about the dead because their days had ended and I did not know how I would get through mine.
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maess's review against another edition

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reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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moonamidheaven's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

beautifully written, tragic, & insightful. the kind of book that makes you sigh at the end.
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erinlouise7's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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agnesbebon's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

5.0

This is one of my favorite books I’ve ever read. The ending was beautifully written. Everyone should read this. I have so many thoughts and a fully developed thesis about this book.
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vivianr28's review against another edition

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dark sad tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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localrancher's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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asnecessaryasbread's review against another edition

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emotional medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

James Baldwing writing style is absoluteñy beautiful and i love how the portrays issues of gender, sexuality and class, but boy oh boy did i want to punch the narrator in the face.
Went in thinking that an important part of this would be a queer love story, but I'd say this is rather an exploration of shame, gender and their manifestation in the body. 
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fightingmarc's review against another edition

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emotional sad medium-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Giovanni's Room has a similar feeling to the book I had just finished reading before, Yukio Mishima's Forbidden Colours, however the emotional payoff here has much more impact. Most queer people who read Giovanni's Room can see themselves in some way with the struggle of Giovanni, David and even Hella. Baldwin's writing is beautiful, and the last fifty pages of the story were weaved so intricately that the climax of the story, which you are warned about early on in the book, still manages a suckerpunch. This is a classic queer tragedy, and one that struck me with an intensity I haven't felt in a while.
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rynicolereads's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I didn't expect this to be such an emotional read. Baldwin's ability to pack so many feelings into such a small book speaks to his gift for writing. I'm going to keep this short, but between the lyrical prose and poignant storytelling, GIOVANNI'S ROOM is remarkable.

If emotional, reflective reads are your thing, you'll love this book.
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