#giovannisroom — Public Fediverse posts

James Baldwin's "Giovanni's Room" impressed me both for its exploration of love, sex, and sexual identity and for the skill with which the author has the narrative unfold; I was gripped from beginning to end.

Although the protagonist is white, I know that some critics believe that the theme of race is obliquely present by virtue of the salience of various kinds of minority identity throughout the novel.

Quite aside from it being a "good read", I would recommend it to anybody interested in the literary treatment of bisexuality.

Expatriation also figures as an important theme. These words hit home with this migrant:

>> You don't have a home until you leave it and then, when you have left it, you never can go back. <<

"Home", of course, can be more than a geographical location.

#Books #GiovannisRoom #JamesBaldwin #Fiction #AmericanLiterature #USLiterature #AfricanAmericanLiterature #QueerFiction #LiteratureInEnglish #Sexuality #Bisexuality #20thCenturyLiterature #1950s #Homosexuality #Gay #Expatriates #Migrants

📚 James Baldwin on Giovanni's Room (1956) 📚

I just finished Giovanni's Room and it has found a space on my favorite books of all time list. Perhaps I should have read this novel 40 years ago when I was in my mid 20s - but I'm not at all upset that I only discovered it now. I'm sure that it resonated in quite a different way for this 60 something single man.

#jamesbaldwin #giovannisroom #books #book #mybookshelf #myreadinglist #favoritebooks #theauthorspeaks #inhisownwords #writer #author #readinglist #livre #livres #libro #libros #library #novel #fiction #buch #bücher #livros #libri #authorinterview

📚 James Baldwin on Giovanni's Room (1956) 📚

I just finished Giovanni's Room and it has found a space on my favorite books of all time list. Perhaps I should have read this novel 40 years ago when I was in my mid 20s - but I'm not at all upset that I only discovered it now. I'm sure that it has resonated in quite a different way for this 60 something single man.

#jamesbaldwin #giovannisroom #books #book #mybookshelf #myreadinglist #favoritebooks #theauthorspeaks #inhisownwords #writer #author #readinglist #livre #livres #libro #libros #library #novel #fiction #buch #bücher #livros #libri #authorinterview

Finished reading #GiovannisRoom by the great #JamesBaldwin last night. And what a book. Of course it’s a great #queer book, and that would be enough. But it’s also so much more. It says at least as much about America and the careless condition of the rich American dilettante as Fitzgerald in Gatsby, at least as much about love, betrayal and guilt as Zola in Thérèse Raquin. And with such an economy of style but richness of expression that I hope he made #Capote seethe with envy.