"I must believe, I must believe, that the heavy grace of God, which has brought me to this place, is all that can carry me out of it."

I love James Baldwin. He pulls no punches and makes no compromises. My first experience with him was Go Tell it on the Mountain, so I was a little skeptical about how I would like Giovanni's Room, but I never should of doubted him. He is so brutally honest about the sorrow and corruption he finds in himself and others, and yet he never loses his compassion and love for the beauty he finds there. His characters are never cliches, and they are never painful to be with no matter how deplorable their actions. The result makes my heart bigger and restores my faith in the novel.