A review by abigailbat
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
In this classic of LGBTQ+ literature, expatriate David meets Giovanni in Paris and falls in love, causing him to question his relationship with fiancee Hella. In Baldwin's beautiful prose, the book explores themes of internalized homophobia, living a closeted life, wrestling with bisexuality, and passing privilege. I wrote down so many passages from this book. The writing is absolutely gorgeous. 

The story, published in 1956, still has a lot of connections to make with LGBTQ+ life today. I especially appreciated David's struggle with his internalized homophobia. While there may be a perception that most queer folks are comfortable with themselves and open about their orientation, there's still a large portion of the community today that wrestles with these same struggles. It may be easier in some parts of America to live and love the way you want, but that's not true everywhere. 

Now, I will say that I think Baldwin's portrayal of Hella (and of women in general in this book) is pretty misogynistic. I have a feeling that our book club is going to talk about that a lot! 
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