Giovanni's Room

God, Giovanni's Room is heart-breaking. I've been avoiding reviewing it, a bit, because it boils so much to the surface. No summary or review could do this book total justice. What Baldwin achieves is a desperate account of two gay-or-bisexual men struggling with their sexuality, their society, and......more

This book contains this passage: "And this was perhaps the first time in my life that death occurred to me as a reality. I thought of the people before me who had looked down at the river and gone to sleep beneath it. I wondered about them. I wondered how they had done it - it, the physical act. I ha......more

"I scarcely know how to describe that room. It became, in a way, every room I had ever been in and every room I find myself in hereafter will remind me of Giovanni’s room." At the end of July, I spent a short but glorious time in 1950s Paris in Giovanni’s room. And I want to tell you about my incredi......more

[Revised 11/18/22] A great novel. The word “ferocious” comes to mind when I think of the intensity of several key scenes in the novel where the main character, a gay man in Paris, struggles to turn against his gay orientation and tries to find happiness with a woman he has pledged to marry. The novel......more

Che male certi libri. Una potenza lirica che spazza via tutta la sporcizia, la crudeltà della fredda pietra grigia che ricopre Parigi. La storia di un newyorkese che fugge dall’amore, cede alla vergogna per paura della sua omosessualità, prova ad amare cautamente ma non si può, attraversa l’oceano p......more