Giovanni’s Room in Around the World in 80 Books

Feb 02, 2019 Elizabeth rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fiction, france, books-of-your-life-with-elizabeth

I'm embarrassed to say that I had not read Baldwin before this. Lucky me! It was wonderful to experience this masterful author's prose for the first time. ...more

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Jun 23, 2024 Ann rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 2024-sns-25

I see why this is such a classic. The first person POV is perfect for this. I could really feel the callousness of David to the people around him while at the same time, he cares about what people think which informs his own view of himself. But he's humanized given his reaction. I also had a personal frisson of excitement given the hot Italian, Parisian setting, and it's the anniversary of my trip. Yes, I can make it about myself too, David.
I listened to the reading by Derek Stoneroad, whose F ...more

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Sep 29, 2010 Vicky rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: intense, novel, queer, own-pre-konmari, re-read, black-authors, made-me-tear-up, fucked-me-up, everyone-loves-it-but-me

Jan. 3, 2021 - Jan. 5, 2021 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Today I finished re-reading this novel exactly 10 years later. Just, fuuuuck.

For I am—or I was—one of those people who pride themselves on their willpower, on their ability to make a decision and carry it through. This virtue, like most virtues, is ambiguity itself. 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. Their decisions are not really decisions at

Jan. 3, 2021 - Jan. 5, 2021 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Today I finished re-reading this novel exactly 10 years later. Just, fuuuuck.

For I am—or I was—one of those people who pride themselves on their willpower, on their ability to make a decision and carry it through. This virtue, like most virtues, is ambiguity itself. 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. Their decisions are not really decisions at all—a real decision makes one humble, one knows that it is at the mercy of more things than can be named—but elaborate systems of evasion, of illusion, designed to make themselves and the world appear to be what they and the world are not.

I succeeded very well—by not looking at the universe, by not looking at myself, by remaining, in effect, in constant motion.

P.S. I am going to be unsettled about Hella's character until there is a fanfic about the woman whose room she spent some time with in while in Spain.

Jan. 3, 2011 - Jan. 5, 2011 ⭐⭐⭐
(view spoiler) ...more

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Aug 17, 2007 Katy rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: race-and-racism

I read this once before, in high school or college. I just re-read it...and it is seriously one of the saddest books ever. On the other hand it is beautifully written, and really, there are worse things than abject misery and self-loathing in a character :)

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