UtopiaBunny's Book Journey

"The morning weighs on my shoulders with the dreadful weight of hope and I take the blue envelope which Jacques has sent me and tear it slowly into many pieces, watching them dance in the wind, watching the wind carry them away. Yet, as I turn and begin walking toward the waiting people, the wind blows some of them back on me."

Shame as a central subject to a novel always feels incredibly difficult to navigate, as a reader who is walking along with these characters, wanting to save them from their constraints.

Baldwin is still a severely underrated writer. The beautiful way in which he takes us through the tumultuous and desperate, deep and fiery relationship between David and Giovanni is intoxicating to read. His exploration of bisexuality, homosexuality, masculinity, femininity, poverty and post-war French society is done so exquisitely in under 150 pages.

Everyone at some point in their life, perhaps when you feel melancholic like I was, should get comfy and wait for the sun to set, and step into Giovanni's Room.