Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

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.