David
Narrator whose fear of his own wanting organizes every betrayal.
Postwar & Contemporary · Novel · 1956
Giovanni’s Room
James Baldwin
In Paris, an American man waits to marry while remembering the affair that has already judged him. Desire and nationality share a rented room.
Psychological novel
Characters
Giovanni
The Italian bartender whose room is a brief country of honesty.
Hella
The fiancée who arrives as the life David thinks he should want.
Themes
Shame
American masculinity as a closet with a view of the Seine.
Exile
Paris as the place one goes to become, or to hide more elegantly.