gravity_and_me 's review for:

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

challenging dark emotional sad

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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My feelings on this book are complicated. It’s poignant and challenging, a deep look into the world of a gay man in the 50s trying to navigate internalized homophobia and a wold that pressures him to abandon himself for what society says he should want. I hate the main character and the devastation he leaves in his wake because of his own self-hatred, but I also pity him and can see what an impossible world he lived in. I don’t even know how to rate this book. Would I recommend it? Yes, but with a lot of caveats.