Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin:
I told her that I had loved her once and I made myself
believe it. But I wonder if I had. I was thinking, no doubt, of our
nights in bed, of the peculiar innocence and confidence which will
never come again which had made those nights so delightful, so
unrelated to past, present, or anything to come, so unrelated,
finally, to my life since it was not necessary for me to take any but
the most mechanical responsibility for them.
Another
book I've just finished this week is Giovanni's Room written by James
Baldwin in 1956. It is a novel that focuses on the life of an
American expatriate man, David, living in
Paris and his feelings and frustrations in his life, particularly in
his relationship with Giovanni, an Italian bartender he had met in a
Parisian bar.
James Baldwin tended to
write controversial novels, in which he explores different themes
such as social alienation, homosexuality, race and class
distinctions. Narrated in first person singular, the novel is deep
and dark, making the reader feel David's emotions and passions.
Giovanni's
room is about a man, David, who lives
in Paris. He and his girlfriend Hella are at the point where they
need to figure out whether they're going to get married or not. He
proposes to her and instead of saying yes right away, she leaves him
and goes to Spain. While she is gone, David meets an Italian man
named Giovanni and they have an affair. This is not the first
homosexual experience David had. He had one when he was younger and
this caused a lot of problems in his life, he seems to be denying
that part of himself.
The best part about this
book is that it was published in the 1950's. The book stirred up a
great deal of controversy when it was released. As an African
American writer, Baldwin was already rebelling against social
prejudices of his time. Now, by writing about his sexuality,
Baldwin's publisher feared that he would even further alienate his
audience/both black and white.
In
Giovanni's Room, David feels ashamed of being gay. It's the 50's and
his family and society are not ready to accept his sexual
orientation, and neither is David. The fact that he is gay is
obvious, yet he manages to trick himself over and over again until
everything becomes public and he is forced to confront the truth.
This is not a gay novel, it is a story about love and feeling, about
loneliness, homelessness and the burden of our own choices. Most of
all, it's a book about how really difficult it
to live and enjoy freedom, without feeling always wrong and always in
need of an escape. There is a passage that I liked very much: “Do
you know how you feel?” (Giovanni asked David). And to this David
answers: “I feel nothing now, nothing.” David's inability and
unwillingness to be honest about his feelings undermine his
relationship with others and ultimately leaves him profoundly alone.
The
novel suggests more hopefully that the loss of innocence, if
accepted, can be the beginning of a
journey that leads to knowledge.
The
story takes place as a flashback over the course of one evening in a
rented house in the south of France before David will take the train
back to Paris the next morning. Drinking by himself in the large,
empty house and looking at the window, David recalls a statement from
a friend named Jacques: “Nobody can stay in the Garden of Eden.”
This is an idea which frames the novel and perhaps offers David one
way to understand his life.
