Our IRL book club pick for January is a tender story of love and heartbreak and it’s now my new favourite book. If you are left with one thing from this post it should be that you NEED to read James Baldwin!
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| ★★★★★ |
Giovanni's Room follows David, an American in Paris as he is waiting for the woman he proposed to to return from Spain where she went to think about his proposal. As he is waiting for Hella, his girlfriend, and for the money his father is not sending (in the hopes that David will return to America), he meets Giovanni, an Italian working as a barman.
"People who believe that they are strong-willed and the masters of their destiny can only continue to believe this by becoming specialists in self-deception."
A Book About Love or Rather the Inability to Love
I think we can spend hours talking about Giovanni's Room and it's only a 150 pages book - we certainly had a lot to discuss at our book club meeting. We can talk about sexual orientation or masculinity or the pressure of normality and of fitting in society, but the most important theme in this book (in my humble opinion) is love: who we love and why we love and how capable we are of love or rather can we fully love somebody, regardless of their gender, if we cannot fully accept ourselves?
While I am more than sure that our dear David in this book is bisexual, his sexual orientation is not stated anywhere because David does not know who he is and he is avoiding thinking about this due to a mix of internalised homophobia, incapacity to think beyond gender-roles in a couple and society. And one must keep in mind that while homosexuality was not illegal in France, David comes from a conservative America where homosexuality is illegal. So can we blame him for having a hard time in this situation? (Well, I definitely can but we can talk more after you read it too.)
"And then: 'Here comes your baby. Sois sage. Sois chic.' He moved slightly away and began talking to the boy next to him. And here my baby came indeed, through all that sunlight, his face flushed and his hair flying, his eyes, unbelievably, like morning stars."
Rooms, Spaces and Paris
I bought this book in Paris, from Shakespeare and Company, from the shelf "Books Set in Paris" (or something like that) and what a great way to classify this book because it oozes Paris! I've only been there for four days and I am still in love with Paris and I was sure it will be one of my favourite cities before I even went there and it did not disappoint, it couldn't, it's Paris! This is the exact same way Baldwin's Paris feels like in this book. It's everywhere and it's so vividly described that you can imagine every street and building and bridge and tree that our characters see on their walks - and they walk a lot.
Every space is brought to life, not only Paris. Giovanni's room, the hotel rooms, the bars. They are alive with noises and details and feelings. It's really interesting to notice how the perception of the space changes alongside David's emotions and turmoil.
"I remembered that life in that room seemed to be occurring beneath the sea, time flowed past indifferently above us, hours and days had no meaning."
Too Close to Home
As with any book, my enjoyment of it is affected by my personal experiences or mood. Reading is subjective, although this book is objectively good. I guess what I am trying to say is that it's a little bit more personal to me, it hits too close to home. It brings forth memories I avoid thinking about, times in the past where I did not like how I acted in some situations. And it's due to this personal baggage why I can understand David (and maybe why I am convinced he is bisexual - Baldwin was also bisexual).
I highly recommend this book, not only because it's my new favourite book, but because it is timeless. It takes place in the 50s and it was published in the 50s, but it could just as well have been published this year. That's how modern and open-minded James Baldwin was. It does not feel like you are reading an old book at all. It's universal. It's modern. And it's about love.
"But it was not the room’s disorder which was frightening; it was the fact that when one began searching for the key to this disorder, one realized that it was not to be found in any of the usual places. For this was not a matter of habit or circumstance or temperament; it was a matter of punishment and grief."
I have so much more to talk about but I am trying to keep this as spoiler-free as possible (and this is why I am grateful to be part of such an amazing book club with so many intelligent but different women - our discussion of Giovanni's Room was delicious).
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin was first published in 1956
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