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Literature should not carry labels of nationality, religion, sexuality, or color. It must be universal; otherwise, the writer becomes a prisoner of societal norms and the expectations of others. James Baldwin believed in similar principles—he believed in his writing even when others told him to abandon his work, suggesting he write “Black novels�� like every other “Black author�� because his audience was limited and pursuing this path would lead only to ruin. Despite this, he published his second novel, Giovanni’s Room, exactly as he envisioned it, resisting pressure from editors and publishers.
For an African-American author—and a gay one at that—to publish a novel in the early 1950s with a blond American protagonist in Paris having a months-long love affair with an Italian man named Giovanni was practically a death sentence. Yet, Baldwin persisted, and the power of his literary talent saved him from obscurity.
Giovanni’s Room is a short novel, barely 160 pages, but every one of those pages is masterfully written in Baldwin’s rich, lyrical style. He leads us from the south of France, where David, in an empty house, reflects on his life over the past few months—about Hella, his fiancée who is on her way back to America, and about Giovanni, his secret lover who is awaiting execution for an unspecified crime. David simultaneously hates and loves Giovanni. He hates him for awakening desires David had long concealed, and he loves him for showing him a different side of life—for opening the door to freedom. David’s problem, however, is his cowardice.
When Hella returns from her extended holiday in Spain, David flees Giovanni’s cramped room, where he had felt liberated. But the room had also become a prison cell, and no matter how many times he slept with Hella or other women to affirm his masculinity, the grimy walls of that small room pressed in on him, refusing to let him escape. He seeks salvation in marriage, hoping he won’t have to question his masculinity there, imagining a life where he can put the children to bed every night.
The tragedy of David and Hella lies in their shared fate—they are both playing roles society has cast for them, particularly the American society of that era (although today’s society is not all that different). Hella is supposed to be a wife, a mother, someone who stays at home waiting for her man, though that is not who she truly is. When David proposes, she goes alone to Spain to think things over because she is afraid and unwilling to accept the role assigned to her.
Meanwhile, David enjoys the bohemian lifestyle he leads while she is away. He revels in the discoveries he makes, in the part of himself, he had hidden for so long. He enjoys the freedom and his new identity until fear sets in and the walls begin to close around him. Ultimately, his cowardice and selfishness bring tragedy, destroying the lives of at least three people.
One might argue that Baldwin sometimes veers into melodrama, but that simply reflects his characters' experiences of love, passion, pain, and sorrow. Giovanni’s Room is a layered novel about inner struggle, desires, fears, bondage, freedom, truth, and lies, and it should be read. Giovanni’s room is a chaotic capsule where dreams were born and where they died.