Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

I first discovered James Baldwin in high school when I read, "Sonny's Blues."  It's a short story about two brothers, one responsible, the other a recovering heroin addict.  The addict seems to have nothing going for him except his ability to play music.  When he plays his music his brother has reason to envy him.  I enjoyed the story, and in particular the writing. 

In college I took a class on the Harlem Renaissance.  We didn't read James Baldwin, but he was interviewed in many of the AV sources we watched during the semester.  And then, he was interviewed by my favorite writer, Robert Penn Warren, for his book Who Speaks for the Negro? about the civil rights movement.  I heard the interview and it was excellent.  You can listen to it here: http://whospeaks.library.vanderbilt.edu/interviews 

Anyway, James Baldwin has been on my radar, on and off, for a long time. 

A friend of mine liked this book so I decided to start with this.  It is my first James Baldwin novel - and I was not disappointed.  A book about homosexuality written in the 1950's already piqued my interest.  It takes place in Paris which has a two-faced way of seeming to accept homosexuals/transvestites and yet persecute them as well. 

The protagonist has had homosexual encounters before the book begins - but at the moment he is dating a woman.  She is away in Spain when the narrator meets Giovanni.  They begin an affair.  Their relationship has few problems on an interpersonal level (there seems to be some difficulty creating roles in a relationship when the pair is of the same gender, and Giovanni is financially unsuccessful - but otherwise the two get along) but the burden of being in a relationship that is not recognized by the world at large is tremendous.  This got me thinking. 

Every relationship is both private (as it should be) and yet also somewhat public.  When/where others recognize you as a couple is the public place of that partnership.  I suppose if you proceed without difficulty that is something you never have to think of.  But here are two people who must think about it.  I find people who must experience life in a different way than most others to be interesting because they reveal something about life you probably didn't know about. 

The problem with Giovanni and David (the narrator) is they react to the public implications of their relationship differently.  That causes them to suffer.  Giovanni is willing to accept public ridicule because he has found something for himself that he values - his relationship with David.  David, however, is extremely at odds with himself.  He doesn't identify as a gay man - he considers homosexuals to be marginalized and he doesn't want to identify himself with a minority.  He struggles with that so much that it's more important than how he feels about Giovanni, who appears to know him better than anyone else in the novel. 

I don't think that Baldwin develops these subjects as well as he might have.  The novel could have done much more with the story it was exploring.  Perhaps, it was too personal for Baldwin to write (he was homosexual and David seems like autobiography).  But occasionally this book has great moments.  I'm glad I read it.