Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

Giovanni’s Room is my first foray into the very celebrated James Baldwin, and after reading it, I can confidently say: Baldwin, you have made me a devoted follower for life. This novel has stirred up feelings and thoughts I cannot seem to outrun.

So let’s face them, shall we?

For those who haven’t read Giovanni’s Room, I will keep this review as spoiler-free as possible. My intention is simple: to convince you to read it.

A Story of Identity, Shame, and Repression

Giovanni’s Room follows David, a young American man raised in New York. After losing his mother at the age of five, he forms a close but complicated bond with his father, a habitual drinker who, despite his strong presence in David’s life, isn't the best role model for David, a topic brought up constantly by David’s stepmother.

As a boy, David emotionally connects with a school friend and establishes a physical relationship. Overcome with shame and fear of disappointing his father (and by extension the social norm of homophobia at the time), he lashes out, rejecting both the boy and himself. This establishes David’s lifelong struggle with identity and self-acceptance.

Lacking direction and unsure of his future, David leaves America for Paris, escaping the rigid social norms of 1950s America and the expectations of family and friends. In Paris, he explores the city’s queer bars, where he meets Giovanni, a charismatic and free-spirited Italian bartender.

What follows is a deeply complex and heartbreaking relationship between Giovanni, who embraces his truth despite his struggles and loves David openly, and David, who is recently engaged and refusing to allow himself to be queer because of the impact it would have on his place in society and the unimaginable shame of bringing Giovanni home to his father.

Baldwin’s Presence In The Novel

Baldwin himself is deeply woven into this novel. Having fled America for Paris after the loss of a close friend and growing racial tensions at home, his own experiences mirror David’s journey of escape. However, where Baldwin found liberation in his writing, David finds only further imprisonment within himself.

Remarkably, Baldwin never explicitly tells us what his characters feel. Instead, he lets us sense it in their silences, in their smallest actions, in the weight of what goes unsaid. He never states outright that David longs for his father’s approval, yet it is evident in every decision David makes, including his flight from America, and through David’s bullying of his first love.

David’s struggle is not just about sexuality; it is about identity itself. Unable to define himself as an American or fully embrace his queerness in Paris, he remains trapped, running from a shame that society has instilled in him.

Giovanni’s Room dismantles the illusion that a change in environment can lead to a change in self. David may leave his American cage, but he locks himself inside another—one built from his own repression.

Baldwin’s Prose: A Masterclass In Literary Power

Where Giovanni’s Room truly excels is in Baldwin’s prose. Stories of repression are as old as literature itself, but Baldwin’s writing makes this one truly unforgettable for me. His words are stark and confronting, yet flexible enough to flow seamlessly with the novel’s shifting emotional landscape, given the short page length, this is a monumental achievement. Sentences are heavily punctuated, creating a rhythmic, and poetic voice that drives the story forward.

Baldwin is a master of leaving just enough mystery in his words, a trail of breadcrumbs simple enough for the casual reader to follow but rich enough for scholars to dissect. He doesn’t lecture; he immerses. He doesn’t preach; he reveals. Giovanni’s Room is as much about what is left unsaid as what is spoken.

I am deeply moved by this novel because Baldwin’s words wrapped around me like a warm blanket, pulling me into its world and refusing to let go, while forcing me to face my own demons, I saw so much of myself in David, and David is not a good person.

A Few Quotes That Made Me Cry

“I was ashamed. The very bed, in its sweet disorder, testified to vileness. I wondered what Joey’s mother would say when she saw the sheets. Then I thought of my father, who had no one in the world but me, my mother having died when I was little. A cavern opened in my mind, black, full of rumor, suggestion, of half-heard, half-forgotten, half-understood stories, full of dirty words. I thought I saw my future in that cavern. I was afraid. I could have cried, cried for shame and terror, cried for not understanding how this could have happened to me, how this could have happened in me. And I made my decision.”

“Love him,” said Jacques, with vehemence, “love him and let him love you. Do you think anything else under heaven really matters? And how long, at the best, can it last, since you are both men and still have everywhere to go? Only five minutes, I assure you, only five minutes, and most of that, helas! in the dark. And if you think of them as dirty, then they will be dirty—they will be dirty because you will be giving nothing, you will be despising your flesh and his. But you can make your time together anything but dirty, you can give each other something which will make both of you better—forever—if you will not be ashamed, if you will only not play it safe.”

He paused, watching me, and then looked down to his cognac. “You play it safe long enough,” he said, in a different tone, “and you’ll end up trapped in your own dirty body, forever and forever and forever—like me.”

The beast which Giovanni had awakened in me would never go to sleep again; but one day I would not be with Giovanni any more. And would I then, like all the others, find myself turning and following all kinds of boys down God knows what dark avenues, into what dark places?

With this fearful intimation there opened in me a hatred for Giovanni which was as powerful as my love and which was nourished by the same roots.

To Wrap It All Up

Giovanni’s Room is a novel about the cost of shame, the weight of unspoken truths, and the devastating consequences of living in fear of oneself. It's powerful because it is raw, poetic, and deeply human.

This book is not just for those who question their identity; it is for anyone who has ever felt trapped by the expectations of society. It is for anyone who has ever believed that changing their surroundings would fix themselves. It is for anyone who has ever run from themselves. And if that resonates with you, then perhaps Giovanni’s Room is for you, too.