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4.36 AVERAGE
4.36 AVERAGE
dark
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I'm gonna be honest – there are many parts that were so exquisitely written just as it said on the cover, and there were some parts that were just pretentious dense prose. I wasn't promised a beautiful love story, so I wasn't disappointed that David's relationship with Giovanni was toxic, but damn.
I hated David right from the start because of how blatantly homophobic he was, like the way he treated Joey, the older men and the drag queens was so excessively cruel. Yes you may say it reflected real life. Yes you may say "which is why he suffered so much later on – it's realism. Homophobia hurts everyone, including yourself". Which is why later on as he spiralled I *rolled my eyes*. Good, bitch, you deserved it. Honestly, what happened to David at the end of the book wasn't even enough imo.
I found everyone else: Giovanni, the older men, and Hella, a lot more easy to sympathise with than this privileged woe-is-me WASP twat. Giovanni played straight into the stereotype: impoverished, passionate Italian, murderous rage, flirty, tall and dark and handsome etc. But he's got a real voice, he was really endearing, and I could feel his affection towards David right from the start, which I must say, well done Baldwin, but Giovanni deserved better than this twat. At least he worked on it. He worked on Giovanni's room, while David tried to escape it. The older men, though deeply despised by David, had a lot of insights too offer. Like how they were young once too, and by looking down on them, David was trying to combat the fear that one day he'd be like them, and it was only through Giovanni that he could have had a chance. And then, it was because David thought two men together couldn't have a future (along with a bunch of heteronormative shit why) he had to
And Hella? Poor girl, she suspected of course but she didn't say much. She let David tell her, but he didn't. Here, old Davey's cowardice shines through
This book reflects where the gay situation was in the 1950s: deeply oppressed, unnamed (the word gay didn't appear once in the text, opting for "fairy" instead, and didn't refer to the orientation but the mannerism – one more way in which David set him apart from the likes of Jacques and Guillaume) and honestly, it's heartbreaking. Gay people were doomed. Or so Baldwin felt. Or so the censorship, because it would have been too much for a story about men with "deviant" tendencies to have a happy ending, twenty years before psychiatrists in America finally decided homosexuality wasn't a disorder. It was beautiful at times, but much of the time it was frustrating to read.
I hated David right from the start because of how blatantly homophobic he was, like the way he treated Joey, the older men and the drag queens was so excessively cruel. Yes you may say it reflected real life. Yes you may say "which is why he suffered so much later on – it's realism. Homophobia hurts everyone, including yourself". Which is why later on as he spiralled I *rolled my eyes*. Good, bitch, you deserved it. Honestly, what happened to David at the end of the book wasn't even enough imo.
I found everyone else: Giovanni, the older men, and Hella, a lot more easy to sympathise with than this privileged woe-is-me WASP twat. Giovanni played straight into the stereotype: impoverished, passionate Italian, murderous rage, flirty, tall and dark and handsome etc. But he's got a real voice, he was really endearing, and I could feel his affection towards David right from the start, which I must say, well done Baldwin, but Giovanni deserved better than this twat. At least he worked on it. He worked on Giovanni's room, while David tried to escape it. The older men, though deeply despised by David, had a lot of insights too offer. Like how they were young once too, and by looking down on them, David was trying to combat the fear that one day he'd be like them, and it was only through Giovanni that he could have had a chance. And then, it was because David thought two men together couldn't have a future (along with a bunch of heteronormative shit why) he had to
Spoiler
hurt Giovanni by disappearing and ran away cowardly to Hella.And Hella? Poor girl, she suspected of course but she didn't say much. She let David tell her, but he didn't. Here, old Davey's cowardice shines through
Spoiler
and she deservingly dumped him.This book reflects where the gay situation was in the 1950s: deeply oppressed, unnamed (the word gay didn't appear once in the text, opting for "fairy" instead, and didn't refer to the orientation but the mannerism – one more way in which David set him apart from the likes of Jacques and Guillaume) and honestly, it's heartbreaking. Gay people were doomed. Or so Baldwin felt. Or so the censorship, because it would have been too much for a story about men with "deviant" tendencies to have a happy ending, twenty years before psychiatrists in America finally decided homosexuality wasn't a disorder. It was beautiful at times, but much of the time it was frustrating to read.
I just didn‘t find it that compelling. There are interesting characters in here, the topic and historic context of the book re important and there are clever plot devices. But somehow it didn‘t land with me
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
brilliant writing, but wish i connected to the characters more — would’ve made the prose that much more impactful
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
fast-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
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
if you don't cry while reading this, you are a sociopath