James Baldwin's Giovanni's Room


 

A poignant tale about a secret love affair between David, an American and Giovanni, an Italian in Paris. The former, having had an accidental relationship with a teenage boy in his early adulthood, tries to deny and suppress his emotional attachment to Giovanni, with whom he shares a room during the most difficult phase of his life. When Hella, his girlfriend returns from her solo trip to Spain, he grasps the opportunity to sever his ties with Giovanni and the Italian is devastated. David pretends to live happily with Hella but deep down in him he misses his simple but beautiful life with Giovanni. Jobless and lonely, Giovanni associates himself with rich gay men for the assurances of money and companionship. And this choice of life leads him to damnation. One night, blind with rage, he kills a lewd ex-employer upon discovering that the man has given him false hopes of re-employment. Learning that Giovanni will be executed, David finds himself unable to go on living with Hella, and one day, he becomes drunk, makes out with a soldier, only to be discovered by Hella. Broken-hearted, Hella breaks her engagement with David and returns to America. At the end of the novel, David is desolate, unsure of what the future holds for him without Giovanni by his side.

After reading, a few questions had me thinking - Is the love between David and Giovanni really a blasphemy to God? Is the conventional love between a man and a woman the only gateway to happiness? Can real love really exist between two men and how should we treat this phenomenon in our society?

Comments

suituapui said…
I wonder if there's a movie.
September 25, 2015 at 11:03 PM
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