Giovanni's Room (James Baldwin) - Its left me with a strange feeling...

Giovanni's Room, published in 1956, is an exploration of relationships - the fact that it refers to homosexual and heterosexual relationships is, in my opinion, incidental. The moot point is that one kind of relationship is acceptable to society and hence comfortable to be in even if not completely desirable, another kind isn't and hence maybe more desirable. The protagonist constantly struggles between these two and is caught in a love triangle like no other.

Giovanni's Room is about David, a young American with a somewhat troubled childhood, who moves to Paris to get away from his father and "find himself". As he says, so appropriately:

"Perhaps, as we say in America, I wanted to find myself. This is an interesting phrase, not current as far as I know in the language of any other people, which certainly does not mean what it says but betrays a nagging suspicion that something has been misplaced."

We learn about his childhood and his life in Paris, in bits and pieces. We know he survived a bad motor accident in America and is possibly traumatized by it, before he came to Paris. We know he is nearly broke and does not have an income. He is hanging out in places where gay men spend time. He has a relationship with an American woman in Paris, who he wanted to marry at one point, but who decides she needs time off from the relationship to figure out what she wants and if she wants to marry him. So for the time being, he is unattached. He meets Giovanni, a beautiful and exotic Italian man, and begins a steamy relationship and exploration of his sexuality and desires with him. Maybe he is in love with the young  Giovanni, maybe he is not - who is to tell? He seems to be going with the flow and justifying to himself that this relationship is something of a stop-gap before Hella comes back in his life. He can then carry on with his life, pretend to be a straight family man and maybe all his internal struggles will vanish along with his desire for Giovanni. But life has other plans, aided by our actions of omission and commission - something so horrible will happen that it will weigh on his conscience and destroy him along with his love and embed him with guilt for life....A Schrodinger's guilt - where we are both responsible for and not responsible for the actions others are driven to, because of us. 

It took me a while to understand and get a grip of this book. It is written in a different style - one in which the seemingly mundane events are described in great detail but the important parts and dilemmas are mentioned in the passing. I struggled with it for some time, but midway through, I think I started understanding what the author was guiding me to, and how he was taking me along this ride. For a short book of just about 150 pages, it took me long to read because of this writing style that made me work hard by rereading certain parts.

The highlights in my copy are many and well worth rereading every once in a while, for the depth of writing and reflection of human frailties and dilemmas. 

Another highlight of the book is the author, James Baldwin, a black author writing in the 1940s and 50s. His first book Go Tell it on the Mountain, was about black characters and brought him literary acclaim. This s his second book and has no black characters, but deals with the taboo subject of homosexuality. His publishers and agents suggested he introduce atleast one black character so that it becomes more acceptable coming from him. However, he stood his ground and refused to compromise his artistic integrity by pandering to stereotypes. He found a small publisher who published Giovanni's Room without any changes. And thankfully, we have the masterpiece to read, admire and struggle to understand.