now in Paris, in a room

I have completely forgotten to post about this brilliant, most intense and masterful book, this Baldwin ´s Giovannís room. It came to my mind again after I just read Anthony Shapland ´s A Room Above a Shop and yes, this somehow follows Baldwin ´s legacy, his huge boots, his masterwork. 

Here, in Giovanni ´s room we get to read about love, sexuality, the hidden sex, the hidden love. Also, both of them were in a tight form, well under 200 pages and that, too, appeals to me. And all of those pages, they, and deliver such powerful lines. But in Giovanni ´s Room Baldwin shows his master skills (also, another book that comes to mind thinking about Giovanni ´s Room is Olivia Laing´s The Silver Book, with themes aligning these two mentioned). Baldwin takes the reader to places, to feelings whether they are known to the reader previously or not and his master writing, the structure, the placing of Giovanni ´s room, de facto, as one of the characters, as a symbol meaning different things to all of the humans in his book. To David, f ex, it is a place of love, of his love affair with Giovanni, a place of heartbreak, a place of secret sex, a safe place with borders, a place of comfort, There is David, his secret love Giovanni (=secret from his father who sends David money, support his time there, away from the US from his family, his fiancee Hella) 

and if one wants to put this book in a box, this book definitely belongs in a box of "gay novel" but of course, there is so much more. 

And if there is a place called Giovanni ´s room, there is also Paris - a place of libeartion, a place of beauty, a place of cruelty. Oh, there is so much in this book. 

For me, this was perfect.