Giovanni's Room
James Baldwin author Caryl Phillips editor
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Penguin Books Ltd
Published:4th Oct '01
Should be back in stock very soon
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£16.99(9780241718599)
One of the BBC's '100 Novels That Shaped Our World'
Baldwin's ground-breaking second novel, which established him as one of the great American writers of his time
'Audacious... remarkable... elegant and courageous' Caryl Phillips
'Exquisite, a feat of fire-breathing, imaginative daring' Guardian
David, a young American in 1950s Paris, is waiting for his fiancée to return from vacation in Spain. But when he meets Giovanni, a handsome Italian barman, the two men are drawn into an intense affair. After three months David's fiancée returns and, denying his sexuality, he rejects Giovanni for a 'safe' future as a married man — a decision that will bring tragedy, longing and regret.
'Gorgeous, fearless, tempered by dark knowledge and pain ... the greatest American prose stylist of his generation' Colm Tóibín
'A layered exploration of queer desire ... It is electric' Hilton Als
Extraordinarily exact and complex emotional intimacy . . . At the core of the novel lies Baldwin’s recognition that with a denial of suffering and pain as a means of happiness, there can be no feeling, understanding, or real connection in life * Guardian *
Today, when a great many arguments and complaints from the queer quarters of the political sphere have to do with what has been done to queerness by the patriarchy and by whiteness, Baldwin asks, in Giovanni’s Room, what love looks like, ultimately, when we leave all those bags at the door — and if we can. Do we know how to live in a purely queer world not defined by resistance or self-hatred?’ -- Hilton Als * New York Times Style Magazine *
The whole novel is a kind of anatomy of shame, of its roots and the myths that perpetuate it, of the damage it can do. -- Garth Greenwell * Guardian *
The simple story of love is filled with ambiguity, difficulty, and paradox -- Colm Tóibín * The New Yorker *
It has a level of angst and heartbreak I am yet to find anywhere else -- Troye Sivan * Vogue *
A mesmerizing book -- Chris Abani * NPR *
If Van Gogh was our 19th-century artist-saint, James Baldwin is our 20th-century one -- Michael Ondaatje
Baldwin writes of these matters with unusual candour and yet with such dignity and intensity * The New York Times *
Audacious... remarkable... elegant and courageous -- Caryl Phillips
Baldwin, in this novel, made clear that he could work wonders with the light and shade of intimacy -- Colm Tóibín * The New Yorker *
Startling... This is Mr. Baldwin's subject, the rareness and difficulty of love -- Granville Hicks
ISBN: 9780141186351
Dimensions: 197mm x 129mm x 12mm
Weight: 136g
176 pages