James Baldwin

First published in 1957, this book attempts to tackle the conflict between homosexual and heterosexual love. It tells of David, a young man awakening to his true homosexual nature, through a relationship with a barman named Giovanni, as he awaits his fiancee's arrival from Spain.

Giovanni's Room

clara

"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."

"It takes strength to remember, it takes another kind of strength to forget, it takes a hero to do both. People who remember court madness through pain, the pain of the perpetually recurring death of their innocence; people who forget court another kind of madness, the madness of the denial of pain and the hatred of innocence: and the world is mostly divided between madmen who remember and madmen who forget. Heroes are rare "

...for nothing is more unbearable, once one has it, than freedom.

"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 had thought of suicide when I was much younger, as, possibly, we all have, but then it would have been for revenge, it would have been my way of informing the world how awfully it had made me suffer. But the silence of the evening, as I wandered home, had nothing to do with that storm, that far off boy. I simply wondered about the dead because their days had ended and I did not know how I would get through mine,"

"Somebody," said Jacques, "your father or mine, should have told us that not many people have ever died of love. But multitudes have perished and are perishing every hour--and in the oddest places!--for the lack of it,."

Maria

I had loved her once and I made myself believe it. But I wonder if I had.

One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World' Baldwin's ground-breaking second novel, which established him as one of the great American writers of his time David, a young American in 1950s Paris, is waiting for his fiancée to return from vacation in Spain. But when he meets Giovanni, a handsome Italian barman, the two men are drawn into an intense affair. After three months David's fiancée returns and, denying his true nature, he rejects Giovanni for a 'safe' future as a married man. His decision eventually brings tragedy. Filled with passion, regret and longing, this story of a fated love triangle has become a landmark of gay writing. James Baldwin caused outrage as a black author writing about white homosexuals, yet for him the issues of race, sexuality and personal freedom were eternally intertwined. 'Exquisite... a feat of fire-breathing, imaginative daring' Guardian 'Excruciating beauty' San Francisco Chronicle 'Audacious... remarkable... elegant and courageous' Caryl Phillips

nica

“Giovanni,” I said, helplessly, “be careful. Please be careful.”

He gave me an ironical smile. “Thank you,” he said. “You should have given me that advice the night we met.”

“If you cannot love me, I will die. Before you came I wanted to die, I have told you many times. It is cruel to have made me want to live only to make my death more bloody.”

“I have never reached you,” said Giovanni. “You have never really been here. I do not think you have ever lied to me, but I know that you have never told me the truth—why? Sometimes you were here all day long and you read or you opened the window or you cooked something—and I watched you—and you never said anything—and you looked at me with such eyes, as though you did not see me. All day, while I worked, to make this room for you.”

“You smell of wine,” said Giovanni, then.

“I haven’t been drinking wine. Is that what frightened you? Is that why you are crying?”

“If I am not here” said Giovanni, both vindictive and near tears, “by the time you come back again, I will be at home. You remember where that is—? It is near a zoo.”

But with the look he gave me then my anger left me and I wanted to cry. “You are not nice,” he said.

I was guilty and irritated and full of love and pain. I wanted to kick him and I wanted to take him in my arms.

I was the only person on God’s cold, green earth who cared about him, who knew his speech and silence, knew his arms, and did not carry a knife. The burden of his salvation seemed to be on me and I could not endure it.

He began to cry. I held him. And, while I felt his anguish entering into me, like acid in his sweat, and felt that my heart would burst for him, I also wondered, with an unwilling, unbelieving contempt, why I had ever thought him strong.

I had thought of suicide when I was much younger, as, possibly, we all have, but then it would have been for revenge, it would have been my way of informing the world how awfully it had made me suffer.

Each day he invited me to witness how he had changed, how love had changed him, how he worked and sang and cherished me. I was in a terrible confusion. Sometimes I thought, but this is your life. Stop fighting it. Stop fighting. Or I thought, but I am happy. And he loves me. I am safe. Sometimes, when he was not near me, I thought, I will never let him touch me again. Then, when he touched me, I thought, it doesn’t matter, it is only the body, it will soon be over. When it was over, I lay in the dark and listened to his breathing and dreamed of the touch of hands, of Giovanni’s hands, or anybody’s hands, hands which would have the power to crush me and make me whole again.

Giovanni liked to believe that he was hard-headed and that I was not and that he was teaching me the stony facts of life. It was very important for him to feel this: it was because he knew, unwillingly, at the very bottom of his heart, that I, helplessly, at the very bottom of mine, resisted him with all my strength.

anet

‘Fighting will not make you stay. In French we have what is called une separation de corps - not a divorce, you understand, just a separation. Well. We will separate. But I know you belong with me. I believe, I must believe - that you will come back.' ‘Giovanni’, I said, I’ll be not be coming back. You know I won't be back. 

“Confusion is a luxury which only the very, very young can possibly afford and you are not that young anymore.”

“Tell me,” he said, “what is this thing about time? Why is it better to be late than early? People are always saying, we must wait, we must wait. What are they waiting for?”

My father had money in his account which belonged to me but he was very reluctant to send it because he wanted me to come home—to come home, as he said, and settle down, and whenever he said that I thought of the sediment at the bottom of a stagnant pond.

I did not wait to have breakfast with him but only drank some coffee and made an excuse to go home. I knew the excuse did not fool Joey; but he did not know how to protest or insist; he did not know that this was all he needed to have done. Then I, who had seen him that summer nearly every day till then, no longer went to see him. He did not come to see me.

People are too various to be treated so lightly. I am too various to be trusted.

This novel of Black life in America is written with an impartial attitude

Go tell it on the mountain : [a novel]

Incredible. And overwhelming. I need to read it again because there's so much within it.

Steven Ovadia

what a beautiful yet tragic story. its actually a short book, but it takes me quite a long time to finish bcs i need more time to process. my rating might change as the time goes by, but overall 4 stars! baldwin’s writing delivered the emotions well.

almeera

Go Tell It on the Mountain (Penguin Modern Classics)

I can’t believe we all write with the same English language that Baldwin does . He uses it to its fullest and makes it so beautiful

Emma Shamburg

yaya

one’s greatest punishment is being oneself. 

While his family struggles with guilt, bitterness, and spiritual issues, John Grimes experiences a religious conversion in the Temple of the Fire Baptised.

Go Tell it on the Mountain

Kavitha Ramachandran 

Don't like the homophobia and subtle racism.

Susan

devastatingly beautiful, lines made me throw the book across the room

sukan

When David meets the sensual Giovanni in a bohemian bar, he is swept into a passionate love affair. But his girlfriend's return to Paris destroys everything. Unable to admit to the truth, David pretends the liaison never happened - while Giovanni's life descends into tragedy. United by the theme of love, the writings in the Great Loves series span over two thousand years and vastly different worlds. Readers will be introduced to love's endlessly fascinating possibilities and extremities: romantic love, platonic love, erotic love, gay love, virginal love, adulterous love, parental love, filial love, nostalgic love, unrequited love, illicit love, not to mention lost love, twisted and obsessional love . . . .

a devastating story of a soul laid bare in the way that an animal bares its teeth

Charlotte Hedges

« perhaps he is a fool or a coward but almost everybody is one or the other and most people are both. »

what a gut punch. what a book. i have no words i think for the amount of emotions i have felt in such a short time, 150 pages seems short but my goodness what a story. what a writer. this book truly pulls you in immediately but this is not something that can be put into words, you really have to read and experience it in order to understand just how deep and heavy this is. 

what a tragic read that i will carry with me forever. thank you to everyone who has ever recommended this to me and to my best friend who gifted me this book on my birthday.

florine

« perhaps he is a fool or a coward but almost everybody is one or the other and most people are both. »

what a gut punch. what a book. i have no words i think for the amount of emotions i have felt in such a short time, 150 pages seems short but my goodness what a story. what a writer. this book truly pulls you in immediately but this is not something that can be put into words, you really have to read and experience it in order to understand just how deep and heavy this is. 

what a tragic read that i will carry with me forever. thank you to everyone who has ever recommended this to me and to my best friend who gifted me this book on my birthday.

Definition of gut wrenching. So insanely beautiful but reading it made me feel sick. All-encompassing.

“Americans should never come to Europe,” she said, and tried to laugh and began to cry, “it means they never can be happy again” 

Annie Millman

Definition of gut wrenching. So insanely beautiful but reading it made me feel sick. All-encompassing.

“Americans should never come to Europe,” she said, and tried to laugh and began to cry, “it means they never can be happy again” 

soot

Devastating. Incredible to read out loud and sink your teeth into.

widya

"The groundbreaking novel by one of the most important twentieth-century American writers--now in an Everyman's Library Contemporary Classics hardcover edition. Giovanni's Room is set in the Paris of the 1950s, where a young American expatriate finds himself caught between his repressed desires and conventional morality. David has just proposed marriage to his American girlfriend, but while she is away on a trip he becomes involved in a doomed affair with a bartender named Giovanni. With sharp, probing insight, James Baldwin's classic narrative delves into the mystery of love and tells an impassioned, deeply moving story that reveals the unspoken complexities of the human heart. Introduction by Colm Toibín"--

Drew Nerbas

An amazing story about human nature with a large emotional impact, loved every page

anna g

this book drew me in and spat me back out so quickly but I loved it it was so intensely beautiful I can't wait to reread it one day

Ghofran Mustafa 

'your father or mine, should have told us that not many people have ever died of love. But multitudes have perished, and are perishing every hour—and in the oddest places —for the lack of it.'

I'm utterly heartbroken!
Been avoiding this book for so long, till I feel like I'm in the perfect mood for it.
And now I feel it's gonna be one of my favorites for this year.

Ryan Mateyk

Call Me By Your Name could never!!!!! (jk it could and it did, but this also did!)

Arin

Elisavet Rozaki 

"Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition."

Fenix Voliton 

I honestly don’t think I have the capability to make a coherent review on this book, other than saying that it’s so so beautiful and tragic, and Baldwin’s prose made everything feel even more raw. 

Giovanni's Room

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