From the Bookshelf of The Challenge Factory…

Giovanni’s Room

James Baldwin

Start date: May 15, 2024

Finish date: May 31, 2024

Discussion: Archived-A Year of Banned Books

Discussion leader: Erica

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Archived-A Year of Banned Books

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* Reading List
By Erica , Quality Control Supervisor · 1 post · 97 views

last updated Dec 12, 2023 04:05PM

* A Year of Banned Books Info
By Erica , Quality Control Supervisor · 1 post · 122 views

last updated Dec 12, 2023 03:53PM

What Members Thought

Apr 14, 2022 fleurette rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: classic

This is an interesting story. Especially if we take into account the times in which it was written. As for that period, it is a very boldly written story. The very assumption that love between men could be comparable to that between a man and a woman was then considered a very revolutionary approach. In fact, in those days, even touching the homosexuality plot was frowned upon. Not to mention paying so much attention to it and writing about it so literally.

In my opinion, the author in an interes ...more

10 likes · Like · see review

Jun 22, 2024 bookswithchaipai rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

When words evoke certain emotions that ignite sights, sounds, and feelings, making you want to revisit the pages again, you know the book has had a profound effect on you. This is exactly what this book did to me!

James Baldwin has a way with words that is both moving and evocative. His writing brought to life Paris at daybreak in all its glory, with the fishermen under the bridge and the gay bars.

I could feel the physical pain of the characters, their anger, desperation, shame, and inner turmoil ...more

3 likes · Like · see review

Sep 14, 2013 Chelle𓆏 rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, book-to-movie-in-my-mind, own-and-read

This is the only book I’ve read by James Baldwin and I had two different reactions from the two separate times I’ve read it. When I first read this book I didn’t think too much of it and gave it 3 stars. Five years later I decided to reread it and holy fucking shit! So that’s what feelings feel like! I bumped this to 5 stars and on my favorites list it goes!

This book is depressing as hell! And I can’t believe I’ve never noticed how much of an asshole Dave was. Dave is our main character who is i ...more

2 likes · Like · see review

Mar 29, 2025 Nicole Field rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Devastating novel of self destruction, self denial and self loathing, set in 1950s Paris with a young American man named David who falls in love with an Italian called Giovanni.

That's how this book was promoted to me. But I want to make very clear that it is not a love story. It is a short tragedy about self discovery coming too late and a man losing everything, including both the loves he could have held, because he learned about himself too late.

So we have David. Our main character, typicall Devastating novel of self destruction, self denial and self loathing, set in 1950s Paris with a young American man named David who falls in love with an Italian called Giovanni.

That's how this book was promoted to me. But I want to make very clear that it is not a love story. It is a short tragedy about self discovery coming too late and a man losing everything, including both the loves he could have held, because he learned about himself too late.

So we have David. Our main character, typically repressed American who, though not currently in America, is definitely continuing on as though his love of men is something that is viewed as illegal outside of the States. He meets a couple of 'fairies', not the type with wings, in the characters of Jacques and Guillaume.

It seems as though these two characters are quite dispicable and, to be fair, when David's mistress Hella returns from Spain, she certainly finds Jacques at least to be quite abhorrent. But I feel as though, as is often the case in an unreliable narrator, the way a character feels towards Jacques says more about their own discomfort than the character himself. Jacques, as it turns out, seems almost more loyal and consistent than many of the characters of this book.

We hear from David about his strained relationship with his father before he moved out as well as a singular experience with another boy that showed David something of what he really wanted himself. But, when the narrative finds him, David is playing all sorts of games and pretending that what he wants isn't really want he wants. He's holding his peers at arms length even though both he and they know exactly who and what David desires.

And then David meets Giovanni. And Giovanni is like this ray of sunshine that, despite all of David's efforts, he really can't quite manage to dim. At least not on first impressions. It really interesting because this is the point where David's own self loathing really shines through. He recounts his first memories of Giovanni as though there is nothing at all objectionable about Giovanni. He is the best of characters, he is the best of friends. His charisma has everyone at the bar where he works wanting more of his company but, for some reason, he keeps talking to David.

This doesn't make sense to David's view of the world and the push and pull that ensues is both vicious and heartbreaking. He wants to part from Giovanni right from the start but literally cannot make himself do it. At every moment we see them together, we see Giovanni falling more and more in love with David, even as David is dropping comments the whole way about how temporary this whole set up must be.

All around him, both Giovanni and Jacques present wisdom to David time and again that he willfully rejects or neglects to pay any attention to. Throughout it all, the return of his mistress, Hella, from Spain is presented as the looming threat but, honestly, it's an empty one. David does all the damage a single person can do.

This is possibly the best modern tragedy I've ever read. ...more

1 like · Like · see review