James Baldwin | Giovanni's Room
- Copyright: © 1956 James Baldwin
- Baldwin's haunting and controversial second novel is his most sustained treatment of sexuality, and a classic of gay literature. In a 1950s Paris swarming with expatriates and characterized by dangerous liaisons and hidden violence, an American finds himself unable to repress his impulses, despite his determination to live the conventional life he envisions for himself. After meeting and proposing to a young woman, he falls into a lengthy affair with an Italian bartender and is confounded and tortured by his sexual identity as he oscillates between the two.
"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."
Examining the mystery of love and passion in an intensely imagined narrative, Baldwin creates a moving and complex story of death and desire that is revelatory in its insight.
"A young American involved with both a woman and a man... Baldwin writes of these matters with unusual candor and yet with such dignity and intensity." - The New York Times
"Absorbing... with immediate emotional impact." - The Washington Post
"Mr. Baldwin has taken a very special theme and treated it with great artistry and restraint." - Saturday Review - • Language: English
• Format: 11 x 18 cm
• Volume: 149 pages
• Covers: paperback
• Year of issue: 2007.