Book Bearings
Giovanni's Room
- 224 pages · about 4 hours
- First published 1956
- 65 editions
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1 About this book
Giovanni's Room is a 1956 novel by James Baldwin. The book concerns the events in the life of an American man living in Paris and his feelings and frustrations with his relationships with other men, particularly an Italian bartender named Giovanni whom he meets at a Parisian gay bar. While he deals with his difficulties with men, he is engaged to an American woman who is travelling in Spain.
Baldwin's novel was considered controversial upon its release in 1956 and has since prompted discussions of many issues, including representations of homosexuality, bisexuality, and struggles with internalized homophobia. The novel also raises questions of social alienation, identity, masculinity, and manhood.
Summary adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
- Race relations
- Psychology
- Classics
- Romance
- Afro-Americans
- Americans in fiction
- Sexual Behavior
- Men
2 What to expect
A short novel narrated by a young American in 1950s Paris who, with his fiancée away in Spain, begins an affair with an Italian barman and cannot accept what that says about him. It is about desire, shame, cowardice and the damage done by denying oneself, told in retrospect over a single night. The prose is intense, lyrical and exact, and the story is a tragedy from its first page.
Good for readers who want: a classic of gay literature, Paris in the 1950s, and a short, intense tragedy.
3 About James Baldwin
Bio adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
4 More by James Baldwin
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