https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/nov/19/james-baldwin-giovannis-room-garth-greenwell-60th-anniversary-gay-novel

Homosexuality in Giovanni’s Room

In James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room I took particular interest in the portrayal of how the homosexual relationships are presented in the novel. The central character in part one of the novel, has sexual relations with a man at a very young age that have a great effect on his life, even years later. The central character, David, is seemingly so ashamed of this experience and of his own sexuality as a whole, that even years later he is struggling both with the memory of being with another boy, and of his feelings towards the men in his life as an adult.

I found an interesting article on this aspect of the novel from Garth Greenwell, who is an American author himself. He cites Giovanni’s Room as being a “classic of gay literature” and “an antidote to shame”. He explains how he read the book when he was in his early teenage years, he first discovered it about sixty years after it was published in a small, independent bookstore in his hometown. It was stored in a section titled ‘lesbian and gay literature’. Of Baldwin’s writing, Greenwell states “It’s hard to overstate what those books meant, growing up in the American south, or the solace I took from them and from their vision of queer life as possessed of a measure of human dignity. It didn’t matter that the dignity was so often the dignity of tragedy; it was still a kind of antidote to shame.” Greenwell goes on to explain the significance of this aspect of the novel, specifically of the central character, David, and his love affair with Italian bartender, Giovanni himself. He says that it accurately portrays the damage that living in such shame can do.

Even years after this novel has been published, a young boy, who aspired to be an author and who was struggling to come to terms with his sexuality himself, found solace in the story of David’s life. He also attributes to how important the contrast between David and Giovanni’s characters are in terms of how they view their sexuality. David is full of shame and depression over his sexuality, taking the form of a much damaged man. While Giovanni seems to form the antithesis of David’s depression over who he really is. As Greenwell puts it, Giovanni seems to be “immune to shame” and gives off a sense of joy and love that David is both lacking and does not believe that he can have.

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/nov/19/james-baldwin-giovannis-room-garth-greenwell-60th-anniversary-gay-novel

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