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A review by shivani_n
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
sad
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Loveable characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
"If I could make you stay, I would, if I had to beat you, chain you, starve you– if I could make you stay, I would. One day, perhaps, you will wish I had."
"One day I'll weep for this. one of these days I'll start to cry."
this book lowkey shocked me to my core. i've never read something so brutal and raw in its description of shame and guilt. in fact, the whole book is really all about shame when it comes down to it, how it manifests, and how much damage it is capable of. the way james baldwin created the whole book around giovanni's room was also really interesting to me, albeit very sad. at first, it starts of as a place where david (the main character) is able to express himself and escape the outside world and its expectations, but then later transitions to a kind of prison where he is unable to escape his desires and gets caught in this deadly cycle of shame and guilt for his queerness.
i also like the way the book is structured in terms of the passage of time. right from the beginning, you baldwin lays out how everything ends (hella leaving david, giovanni being executed), but you don't know how or why yet. that's part of what made the story so compelling; i was eager to find out why giovanni was being sentenced to death and everything that led up to that moment.
honestly a very gloomy, weepy, depressing book but i still liked it. there's a lot of devastatingly eloquent writing so i'd still recommend if that's something you're in the mood for- it's also very short!
"One day I'll weep for this. one of these days I'll start to cry."
this book lowkey shocked me to my core. i've never read something so brutal and raw in its description of shame and guilt. in fact, the whole book is really all about shame when it comes down to it, how it manifests, and how much damage it is capable of. the way james baldwin created the whole book around giovanni's room was also really interesting to me, albeit very sad. at first, it starts of as a place where david (the main character) is able to express himself and escape the outside world and its expectations, but then later transitions to a kind of prison where he is unable to escape his desires and gets caught in this deadly cycle of shame and guilt for his queerness.
i also like the way the book is structured in terms of the passage of time. right from the beginning, you baldwin lays out how everything ends (hella leaving david, giovanni being executed), but you don't know how or why yet. that's part of what made the story so compelling; i was eager to find out why giovanni was being sentenced to death and everything that led up to that moment.
honestly a very gloomy, weepy, depressing book but i still liked it. there's a lot of devastatingly eloquent writing so i'd still recommend if that's something you're in the mood for- it's also very short!