A review by shansometimes
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

emotional reflective fast-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

Classics like Giovanni's Room are the only classics I'm interested in reading. I simply can't be sorry about it. *waves arms dramatically* This is writing! This is literature!

In Giovanni's Room, David is a young man living in Paris in the 1950s. While his (female) fiancée is in Spain trying to figure out whether she wants to get married, he falls for Giovanni, a vivacious but troubled barman from Italy. David ultimately has to decide whether to marry his fiancée and move back to America, thereby ignoring the realizations he's made about himself, or stay in Paris with Giovanni.

Giovanni's Room is a story that goes much deeper than the plot I just described. Sexuality isn't the focus; the struggle with authenticity and perception is. It's a short book that still manages to be complex, excellent, and tragic. It's hard to believe it was originally published over 60 years ago because it holds up so well today.

James Baldwin's mastery of language is on full display in this novel, and I feel silly trying to review it. He once said, "You want to write a sentence as clean as a bone. That is the goal." He did that and then some with Giovanni's Room.