Reviews with content warning for Sexual content - Giovanni's Room

A lovely book, I'm very glad I read it. The only reason I'm not giving 5 stars is that I don't like the way the book talks about/characterizes women. But, I trust that this characterization is a reflection of the individuals in the book and not a remark about women in general, so I still enjoyed reading it very much.

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midnightmarauder's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective 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

4.0

Giovanni's Room follows the story of David, an American man who, after being left by his girlfriend in France, starts a relationship with another man, named Giovanni.

This book touches on many topics. The three main issues it covers is internalized homophobia/biphobia, what it means to be a 'real man', and confinement.

The book takes place in the 1950s, when attitudes of gay people were shifting—more for the worse than better. These strong homophobic attitudes further lead David into self-hatred.

David's earliest experience of same-sex attraction happened with a friend of his named Joey. They

slept together

one night, and afterwards, David became extremely cold to him and began to

bully him

. On top of this, David, who is raised by his single father, constantly expresses his want for David to be a real man. What being a 'real man' means is something that David struggles greatly with throughout the book.

In my perspective, David felt that his attraction to Joey was just a one-time thing, but, after meeting Giovanni and almost instantly being attracted to him, he feels ashamed of himself.

His same-sex attraction makes him feel emasculated, which he displays by mocking other gay/bi individuals that he encounters. He refers to the gay and bi men by the word 'fairy', which is another way of saying 'sissy' or the f-slur. He feels as though he is different from them, despite also being same-sex attracted. This attempt to separate himself from the other men shows how insecure he is about being who he is.

He also pushes himself away from Giovanni because of his shame. While Hella, David's girlfriend, is off finding herself in another country, David and Giovanni spend a lot of time together. But the moment Hella returns,

David leaves Giovanni in the middle of the night and has him worried about him for over three days.

David runs from himself both literally and figuratively.

On top of all of this, growing up, David's father constantly expressed his want for David to be a
'real man'. David's father never elaborates on what he meant by that, but through his letters to David, it can be assumed that he wanted David to find a woman, get married, and have children. David tries his best to achieve this expectation by trying to make things work with Hella.

One last topic that is covered in Giovanni's Room is confinement. Giovanni has big windows with no curtains, so anyone is able to see inside. Because of this, he keeps the lights off in the room and him and David stay low to the ground. This is not just for the need of regular, personal privacy, but also to conceal the homosexual acts that take place in the room. They both know that if anyone were to find them, they would no longer be safe.

All in all, I enjoyed this book. It showed a deeper side to homosexuality and how those who happen to experience same-sex attraction struggle with acceptance, but inward and outward.

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ellareads2's review against another edition

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dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

I have been wanting to read Giovanni's Room for a while now, and I think that this was the perfect time for me to read it. Having seen/read secondary material on this novel before, I think that influenced my readings/annotations, but it did not completely remove me from the story. About three-fourths through the novel, I realized that David and Giovanni really could have been any queer men during the 20th century. This is a story about love, identity, and internalized homophobia that is recognizable to many, even if the degree was not as severe as David's and Giovanni's end. Funnily enough, at the beginning of last year (2023), I read My Policeman by Bethan Roberts. I feel that this is another iteration of this experience, simply set in a different part of Europe. Although there are many key differences from the two novels; one I think most prominent is perspective. In this sort of tragic narrative there is the man that is out (in the sense that he has come to terms with his identity), there is the man that is closeted and has extreme internalized homophobia, and then there is the woman that represents all that the closeted man should be and want but does not truly desire. The closeted man usually treats the woman terribly by not fully communicating his feelings and going through the expectation of a heterosexual relationship on autopilot. James Baldwin tells this story from the perspective of the closeted man. As the novel went on, David just got uglier and uglier. The hate he had for himself was projected onto Giovanni, and I believe is what ultimately led to his death. By the end of the novel, it is clear that he lacks love and empathy for anyone primarily because he does not have that for himself. Guilt and shame rule his ethics and decisions. From the first few pages, Baldwin makes clear that this will be a tragedy. We know that there will be a physical death of Giovanni, but I think with that, there was a spiritual death of David. It is painfully ironic that he does not even end up married to Hella and returns to Paris even though he lamented several times prior to Giovanni’s death that he needed to escape the city. It makes all the pain, suffering, and death seem pointless, but I think it makes sense. It wasn’t the city of Paris itself that upset David, but rather how he associated Giovanni’s room and his evident homosexuality with it. He feels that by physically escaping the city, he will escape Giovanni’s room and all that it contains. Giovanni’s pet name for David, l’americain, categorized him as a foreigner. When Hella returns to Paris from Spain, David is so urged to leave. David’s father writes him a letter worried about what he’s doing in Paris and advises him to come home. All of these details link, at least for David, his sexuality and masculinity. While not said explicitly, the person David can be in Paris (Giovanni’s room), or even person he can be with, is not the same person he has to be in the U.S. This is something I was vigilant or keeping track of as I read because of a close reading from scholar Dwight A. McBride called “Straight Black Studies: On African American Studies, James Baldwin, and Black Queer Studies,” where he asserts a relationship between sexuality and nation. I think that this is a really compelling idea that Baldwin definitely thought about deeply from both this novel and his shared experiences being a Black man in Paris. Overall, I really loved this book. The prose was phenomenal. Baldwin never fails to get at the heart of his characters. While the plot is essential to this story, I think the characters themselves really drive it and what is haunting me still after the last page. I know this may not be fair, but I’m giving Giovanni’s Room a 4.5/5 because I am upset by the kill your gays trope. This is common in much gay media prior to the 21st century, so this is no surprise, but I believe in this way, Giovanni’s Room was palatable enough to be lauded as literature and not a complete disgrace.

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