I watch a lot of YouTube. Like, the vast majority of everything I watch is on YouTube. Everything from podcasts and history documentaries to British panel shows like Taskmaster. The one thing I haven’t had much luck with is book chanels, though. Which isn’t to say there isn’t a ton of literary content on there – but most of what’s out there, that I’ve found, is book reviews. Which I obviously can’t say anything bad about – after all, look at what I’m doing now. But I’m looking more for analysis. When I read a book, I’m usually at a pretty surface level. I fear that a lot of deeper, more thought provoking stuff slips through my filters and gets lost. So the first thing I did upon finishing Giovanni’s Room was to get on YouTube and search for videos about this book and James Baldwin. All I really found were reviews. And that doesn’t really scratch my itch.
Giovanni’s Room tells the story of David, a young bisexual man living in France. His girlfriend is away in Spain, and he is alone in Paris, where he begins an affair with a young Italian man named Giovanni. Time is somewhat fluid here, with the story beginning at the end before jumping back to before David and Giovanni meet. David grapples with isolation, alienation, sexuality and manhood.
It’s been a few months since I read this book, and I don’t have the sharpest memory – but I loved this book immensely. I think I generally enjoy stories about isolation and alienation, and James Bladwin is a truly brilliant writer.
I first learned about Baldwin through his debate with William F. Buckley and his appearances on Dick Cavett. Not because I was alive then – but I watched the videos on Youtube (I should probably, I don’t know, go outside or something). Baldwin had an amazing ability to concisely and clearly elucidate a perspective that harness his outrage into digestible nuggets. And his description of “those who think they are white” gave me an historical context that has fundamentally shaped how I see race in this country. I love James Baldwin.
But I’ve never read one of his novels before. There was nothing in particular about Giovanni’s Room that made me choose it – but it ended up being a great gateway into his world. For me, at least. Your mileage may vary, I found this an engaging and insightful book.
The only thing that….”didn’t sit right with me” is way too strong of a phrase, but “felt off”, I guess, is that David is white. James Baldwin, had so much of value to say about blackness that it felt weird reading a book in which race played no role. But I don’t think that detracts from the book as much as it just felt alien given my preconceived notions of James Baldwin’s context. No one is only the color of their skin, of course, and James Baldwin had far more to say about the human condition. It was more my hang-up than some problem with Baldwin or this book. I think I read somewhere that I didn’t make David black because he felt like it was too much for him to tackle, writing about a man struggling with both is race and his sexuality. If he did say that – that is to say, if I didn’t just make that up – then okay. Fair point.
Anyway, I’m in a library right now, yawning expansively, and I finished this book, like, two months ago. Please don’t take my lack of insightful commentary as an indictment on this book. I loved it.