What an incredible book. I knew from reading If Beale Street Could Talk that James Baldwin was a good writer, but it is rare for me to appreciate a book on just a literary level. The prose, the symbolism, the way it’s so clear what the narrator is experiencing even though he himself is hiding from his feelings—it was phenomenal.
Written in the 1950s and set in Paris, the novel follows narrator David through his relationship with Giovanni and the aftermath of its ending. We know from very early in the book that the relationship is going to end and what is going to happen to Giovanni. The book also has one of the best first lines I’ve ever read: “I stand at the window of this great house in the south of France as night falls, the night which is leading me to the most terrible morning of my life.” David appears to be bisexual and was in a relationship with Hella in Paris, and while she goes off to Spain to think about whether she wants to marry David, he meets and falls in love with Giovanni.
David is difficult to emotionally connect with. He is a mass of guilt, shame, denial, and desire, all tied up in a bow of internalized homophobia and ideas of what masculinity means, and he spends most of his time avoiding all of these emotions. James Baldwin, though, trusts his readers to realize what David is doing and why. He does this without spoon-feeding readers, and we are tasked with reading between the lines. For example, when Hella sends a letter announcing her return to Paris and David is worried about Giovanni’s reaction, he adds “But even this was not my real fear. My real fear was buried and was driving me to Montparnasse. I wanted to find a girl, any girl at all.” We’ve spent enough time with David to know why he’s desperate to find a woman at that moment, which is great because Baldwin isn’t going to explicitly tell us.
I can’t say this is going to be one of my favorite books. I usually need to connect with characters more emotionally for that. David didn’t allow for that emotional connection and was also frustrating at times; while his lying and manipulation came from an understandable place, it sometimes made him unlikable. But I was so intellectually stimulated and really enjoyed the process of close reading. This is a short book—my copy is 169 pages—but I do think it benefits from a slower, closer read. You could race through it, but it wouldn’t be as rewarding. This earned every last one of the 5 stars I’m giving it.