Reviews with content warning for Death of parent - O Quarto de Giovanni

Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

O Quarto de Giovanni by James Baldwin, Paulo Henriques Britto

28 reviews

chloebethx_'s review against another edition

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

4.25

James Baldwin really created a short masterpiece in this book, the emotions and struggles with sexual identity and finding your place in society were so well articulated and written out on the page that it took my breath away. Other reviews have put it in much better terms than I could, but this book is truly beautiful!

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sofipitch's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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 just finished it and my mind is numb but god this is an absolute masterpiece

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librocrone'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? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

Heart-breaking, soul-crushing, agonizing. The writing is beautiful and brings all of that up in you, while still compelling you to keep reading. The men in this book are complicated, and certainly good representations of men of their time (read: misogynists), but you care for them anyway. You can feel the weight of traditional masculinity and how it crushes men — especially men who cannot make themselves fit into it.

It’s hard to read the descriptions of women in this book without being put off the book in general, which is one of the main reasons I rated this so low. I honestly can’t say if I think it was “just the character’s perspective” or if Baldwin also felt that way about women. Very few women are discussed in any positive terms, and those who are don’t remain so for long. Is it because David is a misogynist? Well, yeah. He’s an American man in the 1950s, of course he’s a misogynist. Is Baldwin a misogynist? Hard to parse. I’d have to look more into his real life politics to come to a conclusion. But it’s not the first or last time a gay man might be a misogynist, if so.

This is a classic for a reason. And I’m so glad we have it as a depiction of queer life, especially before Stonewall. It’s a good story, if made difficult due to censorship and obscenity laws. I wonder what this story could have looked like if US publishing laws had allowed for a happier ending. If queer stories in the 50s didn’t have to end with misery and death. The book is enjoyable on its own, but thinking about it in context is unavoidable, because when David asks, “What kind of life could we have?,” well… we have better answers to that question now.

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iris_garden's review against another edition

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challenging dark sad fast-paced

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

4.25

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romanita's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad medium-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

5.0

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nikyas's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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ashleycmms's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective tense fast-paced

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

5.0

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hannahmcd94's review against another edition

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dark sad medium-paced

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

2.5

I feel like I’m in the minority when I read other reviews on this, even though this was a short read it felt like a slog to get through. I do appreciate that for its time it was probably a hugely important book for the depiction of gay men and how so many of them had to hide and couldn’t lead their true life. But it all just felt a little disjointed, the timeline whilst not chronological, just didn’t work me in building suspense, and whilst we know Giovanni dies the reveal fell rather flat for me. I also didn’t totally buy into the relationship with Giovanni and David, but then again I didn’t buy into David’s relationships with anyone, he was a hard narrator to connect with.

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