Giovanni's Room

Nederlands (English below)

Giovanni’s Room (1956) is een ontroerend verhaal over een Amerikaan in Frankrijk: jong, vrij en blut, verloofd met een meisje dat door Spanje reist, verliefd op een barman met een kamer in Parijs. Dankzij de onberispelijke pen van James Baldwin (1924-1987) is de atmosfeer dromerig maar bedompt: waar vrijheid lonkt, drukken sociale verwachtingen. In het voorwoord is opgemerkt dat Baldwin’s uitgever niet stond te springen om het boek uit te brengen en van een ‘professional suicide note’ sprak. De schrijver bevestigde er echter zijn naam mee: Giovanni’s Room is in veel opzichten de voorloper van moderne klassiekers als [b:Call Me By Your Name|36336078|Call Me By Your Name (Call Me By Your Name, #1)|André Aciman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1519203520l/36336078.SY75.jpg|1363157].

Om te beginnen is al veel te zeggen over hoofdpersoon David. Ogenschijnlijk is hij wat sullig: ontwijkend, weifelachtig en niet bepaald vooruitstrevend.

I had decided to allow no room in the universe for something which shamed and frightened me. I succeeded very well – by not looking at the universe, by not looking at myself, by remaining, in effect, in constant motion.

Door de Amerikaan in een Franse omgeving te zetten creëert Baldwin echter een ver-van-huissfeer die uitstekend uitpakt. Terwijl zijn vriendin Hella door Spanje reist, ontluiken Davids biseksuele gevoelens wanneer hij Giovanni ontmoet in een homobar. Het is liefde op het eerste gezicht; zolang Hella niet terugkeert, kunnen de twee zich ongegeneerd terugtrekken uit de wereld, dat wil zeggen: in Giovanni’s kamer – ‘life in that room seemed to be occurring beneath the sea, time flowed past indifferently above us, hours and days had no meaning.’ De kamer zelf – in de buurt van Nation – is weinig romantisch: yellowing newspapers, empty bottles, a single rown and wrinkled potato in which even the sprouting eyes were rotten, op de vloer liggen rode wijnvlekken. Davids leven gaat voorbij in een roes, totdat Hella terugkeert en het verhaal tot een climax komt.

Baldwin beschrijft Davids worsteling met zijn biseksualiteit met veel empathie. Aantrekking, nieuwsgierigheid en schaamte gaan hand in hand. Daarentegen komen de oudere mannen Jacques en Guillaume er bekaaid van af: voor hen lijkt de hoop vergeven, hun handelen is doordrenkt van afgunst en cynisme. Toch is het moeilijk niet ook met hen medelijden te hebben.

‘You think,’ he persisted, ‘that my life is shameful because my encounters are. And they are. But you should ask yourself why they are.’

‘Why are they – shameful?’ I asked him.

‘Because there is no affection in them, and no joy. It’s like putting an electric plug in a dead socket. Touch, but no contact. All touch, but no contact and no light.’

Baldwin eindigt met een prachtige maar schrijnende finale. Het verbaasde me dat de doodstraf in Frankrijk kennelijk nog tot 1977 werd toegepast en pas in 1981 werd afgeschaft. Ook zonder guillotine was de arme Giovanni echter al verloren.

English

Giovanni’s Room is quite the tragedy. If one were to argue that Europe – or any continent – poses a risk to young Americans, exposing them to too much freedom, Baldwin shows that social pressure is never far away, leading to disruptive results. This book explores human nature in different ways, making it much more than a mere gay novel.

This is a tragedy! No spoiler there because it’s clear within the first few pages.

In some ways it reminds me of Real Life by Brandon Taylor, perhaps because I just read that. A lot of damaged people hurting each other and not communicating very well.

David’s journey is so sad but relatable beyond his specific experience. I think we’ve all had some major self-deception projects at points in our lives, with awful results.

One of the things about this book that struck me is that while as a reader I wanted David to come to acceptance of his sexuality, I didn’t want him to be with Giovanni. Giovanni’s possession of David is real problematic. I’m not sure if that’s what Baldwin wanted me to think. And David is honestly no good for Giovanni, he leads him on. But I think part of what this book highlights is how finding healthy relationships is all the harder when your sexuality is considered “dirty.” The characters are all struggling with societal opinions and the internalization of that.

Favorite quotes:
People who believe that they are strong-willed and the masters of their destiny can only continue to believe this by becoming specialists in self-deception. Their decisions are not really decisions at all—a real decision makes one humble, one knows that it is at the mercy of more things than can be named—but elaborate systems of evasion, of illusion, designed to make themselves and the world appear to be what they and the world are not.

His body, which I had come to know so well, glowed in the light and charged and thickened the air between us. Then something opened in my brain, a secret, noiseless door swung open, frightening me: it had not occurred to me until that instant that, in fleeing from his body, I confirmed and perpetuated his body’s power over me. Now, as though I had been branded, his body was burned into my mind, into my dreams.

There lurks in each of us, I feel, a chameleon. This chameleon is called 'The Conformist'. The chameleon allows us to modify ourselves, infinitesimally or in larger, more visible degrees, to adapt to a situation, a scenario or an event. Sure, to remain unchanged is to be perceived as resistant to change, or worse, resisting change, insofar as change is seen as a positive. But does our changing nature permit us some semblance of gravity at our innermost core? Can we dare define ourselves, put a label to ourselves?

[b:Giovanni’s Room|38462|Giovanni’s Room|James Baldwin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1501485157l/38462.SY75.jpg|814207] cuts to the heart of this dilemma. David, the protagonist is an American, but he is in Paris in the 1950s, attempting to be un-American. He is in love with Giovanni, a tempestuous, wilful Italian man, but he is also in love with Hella, an American woman. He is in love, but he is also not in love (because what is 'love' if not a label, and by assigning a label, do we not cast love in an immutable state?)

What does it mean to be oneself? What does it mean to love another? Can love be defined by gender?Can events be predicated on love? Can entire lifetimes be borne out of a sense of belonging? What is home?

This is a rather rough-shod review, but Giovanni's Room inspires in me more questions than answers, and perhaps that is its great accomplishment, a metaphor for life, as it were.