Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

First published: 1956

The Work

Giovanni’s Room was James Baldwin’s second novel, after Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953). It was a risky book for Baldwin because it openly explored male homosexuality at a time when few writers discussed gay themes. It almost went unpublished. Knopf had taken Baldwin’s first novel, but rejected Giovanni’s Room and may even have suggested that Baldwin burn the manuscript to protect his reputation. Other rejections followed before Dial Press accepted the book for publication.

Baldwin, who was gay, had touched on homosexual love in “The Outing” (1951) and toward the end of Go Tell It on the Mountain, but Giovanni’s Room was a frank portrayal of a gay man’s feelings and torments. The book involves white rather than black characters, which added to the book’s commercial and critical risk. Giovanni’s Room focuses on David, an American expatriate living in Paris, France. Other characters include Hella, an American woman and David’s lover, and Giovanni, an Italian who becomes David’s gay partner. The story is narrated in first person by David.

Part 1 begins with Hella having left for America and Giovanni about to be executed. The rest is told primarily in flashbacks. In the flashbacks, David comes to Paris after a homosexual affair and attaches himself to Hella. He asks her to marry him, and she goes to Spain to think about it. During Hella’s absence, David meets Giovanni, who works in a bar owned by a gay man. David and Giovanni are immediately drawn together and become lovers. David moves into Giovanni’s room and the two are happy for a time. David cannot fully accept his gay identity, however, and reminds himself that Hella will return. In part 2, Giovanni and David’s relationship sours, mainly because David begins to despise his own feelings and to resent Giovanni’s affection. The tension increases when Giovanni loses his job.

Hella comes back and David returns to her without even telling Giovanni. He pretends to be purely heterosexual, and finally breaks off his relationship with Giovanni, who is devastated emotionally. David and Hella plan to get married, but then hear that Giovanni has murdered the owner of the bar where he once worked. Giovanni is sentenced to death. David stays with Hella during Giovanni’s trial, but finally gives in to his feelings and goes to the gay quarter. Hella sees him with a man and realizes David will never love her fully. She leaves for America, and David is left to think of Giovanni and to feel empty. David can neither accept his nature nor escape it.

Bibliography

Adams, Stephen. “Giovanni’s Room: The Homosexual as Hero.” In James Baldwin: Modern Critical Views. New York: Chelsea House, 1986. Examines the novel in the context of Baldwin’s first four books, all of which reflect the troubled relationship between questions of personal identity and social survival. Suggests that Baldwin mourns the unrealized possibilities of homosexual love while celebrating its heroic and redeeming capacities.

Campbell, James. Talking at the Gates: A Life of James Baldwin. New York: Viking, 1991. A good narrative biography, with detailed notes and bibliography.

Fiedler, Leslie. “A Homosexual Dilemma.” In Critical Essays on James Baldwin, edited by Fred L. Standley and Nancy V. Burt. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1988. A critical response typical of some early reviews that found the novel a curiously melodramatic morality play. Still, Baldwin is seen as a religious writer who is to be congratulated for attempting a tragic theme, the loss of the last American innocence.

Goldstein, Richard. “Go the Way Your Blood Beats.” In James Baldwin: The Legacy, edited by Quincy Troupe. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1989.

Kenan, Randall. James Baldwin. New York: Chelsea House, 1994.

Kinnamon, Keneth, ed. James Baldwin. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1974. A part of the Twentieth Century Views series, this collection contains some important appraisals of Baldwin’s work and career by Langston Hughes, Eldridge Cleaver, and Sherley Anne Williams, among others.

Macebuh, Stanley. James Baldwin: A Critical Study. New York: The Third Press, 1973. Claims the source of the novel is Baldwin’s religious imagination, not his psychosexual preoccupations. Macebuh asserts that the novel is less about homosexuality than it is about the implications of homosexuality in a world where the relationship between God and human beings is defined by terror.

Porter, Horace A. Stealing the Fire: The Art and Protest of James Baldwin. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1989. Argues that the novel takes up Henry James’s theme of American innocence confronting European experience but explores new cultural territory, charting an alienation based not on class or race but on sexuality. Refutes the novel’s low critical standing, claiming it is significant in Baldwin’s literary development as well as in African American literature generally.

Pratt, Louis H. James Baldwin. Boston: Twayne, 1978. Identifies four symmetrical episodes at the center of the novel that shape David’s struggle: David’s relationships with Joey and Giovanni, on the one hand, and his relationships with Sue and Hella on the other. From the first, he derives satisfaction and shame, from the second, acceptance and emptiness.

Standley, Fred L., and Nancy V. Burt, eds. Critical Essays on James Baldwin. Boston: G. K. Hall, 1988. A collection of contemporary reviews and essays covering Baldwin’s entire career.

Sylvander, Carolyn Wedin. James Baldwin. New York: Frederick Ungar, 1980. A study that examines in particular the links between Baldwin’s works and his life.

Troupe, Quincy, ed. James Baldwin: The Legacy. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1989. Equally divided between memoirs of the writer and discussions of his work. Includes a very useful bibliography.

Weatherby, W. J. James Baldwin: Artist on Fire. New York: Donald I. Fine, 1989. An important biography written by one of Baldwin’s friends. Weatherby is, at times, too close to his subject to be objective.