Reviews with content warning for Infidelity - Giovanni's Room

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Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

82 reviews

alice666's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

‘People are too various to be treated so lightly. I am too various to be trusted.’

Wonderful and remarkably vulnerable, Baldwin gives his insight into the complexities, anxieties and passions that exist beneath the skin of our most palatable and performative natures. And, how we can be so convinced and hypnotised by a separate safe idea of ourselves that it can be seen to be corrupted and imperilled by our most genuine and intimate selves.

In short, be prepared for many tears.

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bookwormcat's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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quinn24's review against another edition

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5.0

Thank you James Baldwin for writing about internalised homophobia, toxic masculinity, and how the closet kills, I love you. I feel like I’ve been hit by a bus.

Alexa play good luck, babe! by Chappell Roan

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marthadude's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
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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annoyedhumanoid's review against another edition

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dark reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

in the last book i read, Greta & Valdin, Valdin is praised for not being "one of those gay men who says awful things about women" and reading that i was like what! which gay men are those, i'll fight them. these are those gay men.

i was expecting a tragedy of forbidden love between expats in Europe, a proto–Call Me By Your Name, but that's not what this is. rather, Giovanni's Room is a character study of two lost men who come to depend on each other for purpose, until their foundations crumble. the pacing was excellent and the journey as bleak as it was for our characters. i was going to make fun of my edition's Tortured Poets Department–ass cover (black-and-white photo of subject posed in almost cartoonish angst), but it's actually quite fitting:

David, our narrator,

is the smallest man who ever lived. they're both terrible misogynists, don't get me wrong, but this one is literally an emotional terrorist (albeit unintentional, i believe).

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messymimms's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

3.25

Another sad and sadly important book! I understand why it’s a classic, as it does what classics do best, delve into a deeply specific situation that has some bearing on universal human themes and emotions. At its heart, Giovanni’s room is a story about shame.

It chronicles what happens when the object of your desire is so unthinkable (read: a man) that they become grotesque and despised by virtue of your own projected self-hatred. Not easy reading.

The narrator is admirably reflective; he dodges and intellectualises but really, he knows how he feels. Baldwin accurately describes those moments where you can see the truth inside yourself, *somewhere over there* but you daren’t look in case it catches the light and becomes more real.

He is also painfully observant, detail-obsessed and speculative. Always going off and describing the projected inner workings of someone else’s life. Often women - such strange creatures! Speaking from a 21st Century ADHD perspective, he sounds neurodivergent. But that’s just opinion!

Beyond being a story of shame, this novel also talks about codependency, with characters smearing boundaries all over the place and taking advantage of power (the power of shame? Maybe that’s putting it too simply). It’s a mess! But that’s the point.

The writing itself is intense. There are long sentences. There are big words. There were some new words for me, like “unregenerate” and - dear god - it drilled the word sardonic into my mind. A lot of people in this book act sardonically. Some of it is in French, but I rather enjoyed that.

Especially towards the beginning, the language is dynamic and very exciting; heat “bangs” against walls, light “spills” covering everything, telephone poles “come crying out” as you speed towards them. This shifts through the novel, and towards the end is where I felt it became dense and a little tepid. This seems to reflect the main character’s depth of despair, which kind of works, I guess.

We have a great view into the inner machinery of the narrator’s mind, his attempts to cover-up, his little lies, his big ones, his overthinking, his biases and his bigotry too. The rest of the view is Paris and its characters, with all of their flaws laid out. So. Many. Flaws.

Look, there are reasons I have not ventured to Paris in my adult life. I’m allergic to hedonism. At best I don’t get it, at worst it ~~disgusts~~ really bothers me. The wine, the intensity, all of those varied and supposedly wondrous plaisirs of the flesh - not my bag. Don’t come for me, I’ve got my own shit, I’m in therapy!!!

As such, a book like this was never going to be meant for me. I’ve never felt David nor Giovanni’s particular gut-wrenching anguish, their need to be close and the impossibility of that, but overall, Giovanni’s Room truly had its moments. Despite being heady, intellectual and anxiety-inducing, it felt authentic. I have no doubt Baldwin wrote from experience.

For anyone looking to really delve into the mind of a queer person in the 1950s, I would consider this essential reading. I suppose I’d just ask you to remember it doesn’t represent all queer people. Many of us can (thankfully) both love and like each other.

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james1star's review against another edition

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emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.5

I thought this was going to be one of my *five star* crème de la crème, all time fave books but sadly it didn’t deliver. Some of my reaction and reading experience is hindered by this but the rating is a true reflection. I definitely want to give this a reread as there’s very likely more to uncover and take from this book and my rating may change.

The plot is essentially following David, a young American man living in 1950s Paris whilst his fiancé Hella is exploring Spain trying to find herself. He meets the younger handsome barman Giovanni and the two start a domed relationship. It’s told from the perspective of looking back at these events on the day that something major is about to happen and how it leads upto this. We get some more backstory of these main characters and some of the periphery ones too and how gay people experienced life in this ‘contemporary’ context. This was good and we got a glimpse into their lives being set and written in the 50s but herein lies my main issue with the book. That being the misogyny present which at times the two bond over by laughing and is not addressed which I found very disappointing. This section was infuriating to read: ‘'Oh, well,’

said Giovanni, 'these absurd women running around today, full of ideas and nonsense, and thinking themselves equal to men-quelle rigoladel-they need to be beaten half to death so that they can find out who rules the world.’

I laughed. 'Did the women you knew like to get beaten?’

He smiled. 'I don't know if they liked it. But a beating never made them go away, We both laughed. ‘They were not, any way, like that silly little girl of yours, wandering all over Spain and sending postcards back to Paris…’’ I HATED IT!! Later Hella says ‘I want to start having babies. In a way, it’s really so I’m good for.’ Which was frustrating too, and some other as well.

The writing is exceptional, there are many beautifully written and crafted passages and quotes (at the end) which really bring the story to life - not as many as I had though there would be, I underlined and stared a decent amount but this too was slightly underwhelming. That being said, there’s also quite a lot of long winded sentences with multiple syntaxes which at times felt a bit hard to follow and I couldn’t fully understand or pinpoint what Baldwin was trying to say. Additionally there’s enough sections of untranslated French which I did find quite annoying and wasn’t able to understand again what was fully going on - it’s by no means excessive and at I could guess at points but there was enough to make a comment. I found the story and messages and what the author was saying with the book to be decent enough. However, I have read a fare few iterations of a similar story arc of a doomed queer love that we know already won’t go anywhere, or anywhere good, which I have much preferred. I understand many of these stories were probably influenced by this seminary work but as I’ve read these later ‘versions’ before and liked them more, this just doesn’t compare or rank as highly.

On the whole, I am glad I read this as have wanted to for a long time but am left disappointed. I would still recommend it but there are (in my opinion) much better similar queer stories.

Some of the favourite quotes:

‘But people can’t, unhappily, invent their mooring posts, their lovers and their friends, anymore than they can invent their parents. Life gives these and also takes them away and the great difficulty is to say Yes to life.’

‘…Either, or: it takes strength to remember, it takes another kind of strength to forget, it takes a hero to do both.’

‘Giovanni looked at me. And this look made me feel that no one in my life had ever looked at me directly before.’

‘’Love him,’ said Jaques, with vehemence, ‘love him and let him love you… you can make your time together anything but dirty… if you will not be ashamed… you okay it safe long enough,’ he said, in a different tone, ‘and you’ll end up trapped in your own dirty body, forever and forever - like me.’’

‘…not many people have ever died of love. But multitudes have perished…’

‘He made me think of home - perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition.’

‘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, more terrible than anything I will ever be able to say.’

SPOILER QUOTE

‘No matter how it seems now, I must confess: I loved him. I do not think I will ever love anyone like that again.’ - this shot straight to my heart as I could liken it to my still fave book ever, Philippe Besson’s Lie With Me and yh great!

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benegesserwitch's review against another edition

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dark emotional 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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rieviolet's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

I had very high expectations for this novel and unfortunately it didn't live up to them as much as I'd hoped for.

I cannot fault Baldwin's prose, he knows how to paint a scene or portray an emotion with words. I also don't mind bleak and melancholic stories. I think that my main problem was that I struggled to connect with the characters. I wasn't very fond of David but honestly, I disliked Giovanni the most, he spewed such brutally misogynistic remarks that I just wanted to throw him into the Seine, sympathizing with him was the furthest thing from my mind.
While I recognize that not getting along well with unlikeable characters is a personal issue, I also think that the relationship itself felt a bit flimsly grounded. I was disconnected from the characters and, accordingly, I wasn't strongly invested in their turmoils and tragedies.

All in all, I understand and value the importance of the themes explored and the relevance of the novel within the queer literary canon, but it didn't resonate with me as deeply as with other readers.

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theeo's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

I don’t have anything original to add to the conversation about this book, but I personally enjoyed it a lot. It’s definitely an emotional read and a lot of the themes are very heavy, so it took me a little while to get through despite it being very short. This isn’t a bad thing in this case - I was savouring it. The descriptive language is so meticulously crafted that it felt wrong to rush through.

I believe this is a must-read for queer literature and I’d really like to read more of James Baldwin’s work now!

Definite recommend, just don’t expect to like the protagonist…

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