You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Take a photo of a barcode or cover
ralovesbooks 's review for:
Giovanni's Room
by James Baldwin
Would definitely recommend
This book is so beautiful and painful. I'm so glad I read it! I'm just sort of stunned at it. It reminded me of Fitzgerald and Hemingway; the language is beautiful, and the characters are aimless and frustrated. (and yet, this didn't bother me in a slacker-y way) I also appreciate that the book is short and deadly. Baldwin cuts to the quick and leaves you breathless.
---
Jacques is not too bad. Perhaps he is a fool and a coward but almost everybody is one or the other and most people are both. (23)
Perhaps everybody has a garden of Eden, I don't know; but they have scarcely seen their garden before they see the flaming sword. Then, perhaps, life only offers the choice of remembering the garden or forgetting it. Either, or: it takes strength to remember, it takes another kind of strength to forget, it takes a hero to do both. People who remember court madness through pain, the pain of the perpetually recurring death of their innocence; people who forget court another kind of madness, the madness of the denial of pain and the hatred of innocence; and the world is mostly divided between madmen who remember and madmen who forget. Heroes are rare. (25)
Jacques: "I mean you could have been fair to me by despising me a little less."
David: "I'm sorry. But I think, since you bring it up, that a lot of your life is despicable. (55)
"What kind of room do you think Giovanni should be living in? How long do you think it took me to find the room I have? And since when, since when" -- he stopped and beat with his forefinger on my chest -- "have you hated the room? Since when? Since yesterday, since always?" (Giovanni, 117)
I loved her [Hella] as much as ever and I still did not know how much that was. (119)
"Of course, I liked Spain, why not? It's very beautiful. I just didn't know what I was doing there. And I'm beginning to be tired of being in places for no particular reason." (122)
This book is so beautiful and painful. I'm so glad I read it! I'm just sort of stunned at it. It reminded me of Fitzgerald and Hemingway; the language is beautiful, and the characters are aimless and frustrated. (and yet, this didn't bother me in a slacker-y way) I also appreciate that the book is short and deadly. Baldwin cuts to the quick and leaves you breathless.
---
Jacques is not too bad. Perhaps he is a fool and a coward but almost everybody is one or the other and most people are both. (23)
Perhaps everybody has a garden of Eden, I don't know; but they have scarcely seen their garden before they see the flaming sword. Then, perhaps, life only offers the choice of remembering the garden or forgetting it. Either, or: it takes strength to remember, it takes another kind of strength to forget, it takes a hero to do both. People who remember court madness through pain, the pain of the perpetually recurring death of their innocence; people who forget court another kind of madness, the madness of the denial of pain and the hatred of innocence; and the world is mostly divided between madmen who remember and madmen who forget. Heroes are rare. (25)
Jacques: "I mean you could have been fair to me by despising me a little less."
David: "I'm sorry. But I think, since you bring it up, that a lot of your life is despicable. (55)
"What kind of room do you think Giovanni should be living in? How long do you think it took me to find the room I have? And since when, since when" -- he stopped and beat with his forefinger on my chest -- "have you hated the room? Since when? Since yesterday, since always?" (Giovanni, 117)
I loved her [Hella] as much as ever and I still did not know how much that was. (119)
"Of course, I liked Spain, why not? It's very beautiful. I just didn't know what I was doing there. And I'm beginning to be tired of being in places for no particular reason." (122)