Table of Contents
The Reading Plan for this Month
Giovanni’s Room has been on my reading list for a while. I first heard about it from cari of the cari can read YouTube channel sometime last year. I picked up a physical copy of the book from a local book store last year as well.
February is Black History Month so I decided that I wanted to dedicate the month to reading books by Black authors and who better than to start with than James Baldwin, one of the greatest Black author’s of all time.
Living in Giovanni’s Room
Going into this I had heard from cari’s recommendation that this book was a sad one. I can confirm that the story in this book is quite sad indeed. I had also heard that this book is extremely well written and I am happy to confirm that as well. This book paints a tragic love story that by the end will leave you heartbroken. I have never seen heartbreak written this well.
James Baldwin’s writing in this book is evocative. I love the way he paints a scene, his descriptions of the environment the characters are in, the vibe of the situation, the sensations – all of these are done to perfection. As I was reading this book I could picture the various scenes in Paris. I could picture the characters drinking cognac at a bar, I could picture Giovanni’s dingy little room and everything in between. It reminded me of Interview with the Vampire in that sense.
The book’s primary themes are – love and the fear of it and more specifically internalized homophobia. I think the book handles that topic quite well. David’s internalized homophobia is one of the most heartbreaking aspects of this book and it is rendered in a nuanced and well thought out way.
A couple other things I’ll note here, not as criticisms but things you should be aware of – first, I was a bit confused as to the point-of-view or timeline here – some of the book seems to be one of the main characters recalling the past, memories. Others are the “present”. It does feel a bit jarring but I don’t think it detracts from the book.
The second is that most of this book is set in Paris, France and Baldwin uses a lot of French phrasings. You may want to keep a browser tab open to Google Translate to translate them if you don’t speak French. The French phrases felt more like flavour text than anything but I did find myself translating them just because I was curious.
Conclusions
This book is short, sweet, and sad. A perfect trifecta of well written prose that will leave you dreaming of Parisian bars and cafes and long lost loves, the one that got away. It is a perfect read for Black History Month but it is also a perfect read for Valentine’s Day which is coming up.
If you are able to, I highly recommend picking up a physical copy of the 2024 Vintage International Edition of the book. It has a gorgeous new cover design (pictured in this review) that I really like. The new edition also comes with a introduction that served as a good primer to James Baldwin himself.
All in all, a fantastic start to the month. I am looking forward to other books I am planning on reading this month!
Until next time comrades.
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