A review by miaaa_lenaaa
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

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

4.75

Gorgeous writing

‘Perhaps he is a fool and a coward but almost everybody is one or the other and most people are both.’

‘perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition.’

‘What a long way, I thought, I've come - to be destroyed!’

‘My executioners are here with me, walking up and down with me, washing things, and packing, and drinking from my bottle. They are everywhere I turn.’

‘’For a woman,' she said, I think a man is always a stranger.’

‘The stone of the city, which had been luminous and changing, faded slowly, but with no hesitation, into simple grey stone again. It was apparent that the stone was hard. Daily, fishermen disappeared from the river until, one day, the river banks were clear. The bodies of young boys and girls began to be compromised by heavy underwear, by sweaters and mufflers, hoods and capes. Old men seemed older, old women slower.’

‘There seemed to be no one on the streets at all. It seemed inconceivable that the day would ever break.’
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