Good Stuff Doesn't Age, It Matures
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Although advancing in its fifties, Giovanni's Room is a novel which does not get older, it only gets better. It still strikes the reader with the courage and opennes with which James Baldwin tackles his largely unspeakable (at the time of its writing) subject matter. The pains and tortures of search for sexual identity are rendered with real mastery and even if the ending may seem a bow to the demands of an age long gone, it only adds to the psychological truth of the novel. An absolute classic!
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First Love
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I found this such an interesting book to read. About a young man, David, who while in Paris, away from his fiance, has a relationship with an italian barman named Giovanni, which ends in tragedy. I'd call it tragedy, but its not an "oh my god, im sleeping with my mother" tragedy, the characters are tragic, in their hopelessness, their inability to recognise whats right for themselves, let alone anybody else.
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Brilliant, and painful
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This is an excellent novel, I could not put it down, in spite of the fact that, knowing that it would all go terribly bad, I was always scared of what could happen. It is a sad story, and yet so true, in the way it portrays a city, a historical period, and the realisation (and denial) of one's homosexuality. Yes, the main character is a coward, and yet Baldwin does not push the reader into hating him. We don't like him, we would not behave like him, still we can understand.
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Beautiful, emotional and tragic. Worthy of 'classic'
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The book set in Paris, and is about an American who due to marry his fiancé upon her return from travelling Spain, but the problem is he is a man who has repressed his homosexual desires the majority of his life. That is, until he meets the irresistible Giovanni, an Italian barman who left his homeland and wife because of a family tragedy. From the start of the book, you are alerted to the Giovanni’s impending doom. That’s not normally something I like in book, I want there to be surprise and shock, but it works well here. As you learn more about Giovanni, and the relationship with the two men, you don’t want the tragedy to occur, there is a constant sense of dread as you yourself fall in love with and empathise with Giovanni’s character. I won’t write more for fear of giving too much away, but suffice to say, the book is beautifully written, very moving, and I was unable to put it down.
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flawless
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What can one say about such a book? It's absorbing, lyrical, interesting, entertaining, intelligent, beautiful, and revealing which confirms it's standing as a work of art.
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