Giovanni’s Room (1956) By James Baldwin

This was a re-read for me.  I’ve said it before, and stand by it, Baldwin has no peer in American literature.  I’ve read everything written by him that’s been published.

Giovanni’s Room was a breakthrough novel for its time period.  It dealt with the taboo subject of homosexuality, and it dealt with personally coming to terms with one’s own sexuality, basically requiring that it be set outside of the United States (Paris) – not even New York was ready in the 1950’s.  At the time, only Gore Vidal had risked his career with this topic, in his classic The City and the Pillar, published in 1948.  Perhaps more significant than its topic is that Giovanni’s Room is clearly the forerunner of what I consider Baldwin’s best book, Another Country – which dealt with every then taboo topic one could name, none of which were talked about in “polite” company, rather on in print in 1950's America.