First Blog Ever

 Hi, this is Monalisa. And this is my first ever blog. I started this blog because I needed "extracurricular marks " for my university. But if I feel like it, may be I will continue it. It took me a lot of time to think about what to write in this blog. My friends suggested writing about something that interests me. Now, a big part of me being me is, reading. Reading fiction or non-fiction. So I thought, I might as well write a book review. May be this blog will turn out to be a book reviewing blog. But that's something to think about in future. For now, here's a review of a book I read some time back.

 Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin....

The story starts at the end. The story starts with us knowing that Giovanni, the character that is the book named after, will be executed the next morning. At this point, we know nothing about Giovanni or why he would be executed.  Later as we follow David, the narrator who slowly walks us through the story,  there is an urgency within us to know how we get from where we are at the beginning of the novel to the first flashback. The result is a story that is intriguing and gripping within the first few minutes. And that is how I fell in to the trap of a wordsmith ,that is the literary legend James Baldwin.

Giovanni’s Room is set in 1950 Paris. The protagonist is David, a young American, whose girlfriend has left for Spain to contemplate marriage.

Through a small group of café acquaintances, he meets Giovanni, a young Italian bartender. David’s lonely life becomes exciting and dangerous. A secret relationship begins that suffocates him with feelings of love, shame, confusion and guilt.

They temporarily live a happy, sad, obsessive life in Giovanni’s unruly, claustrophobic room. But soon David craves for a "normality" that required him to leave Giovanni. So at the end of the story he gives in to a society, that forced him to abide by the accepted conventions of the time. And that is how their story ends.

If I had to describe the story in one word, it would be 'Haunting'. There were instances where it felt like I was David, standing in that dingy little  room, helpless, afraid and guilty, as Giovanni painfully begged for my love. It felt as if the walls of Giovanni's room itself is closing in on me and I wanted to run.

May be Baldwin wanted us to remember that feeling. Because there are still countless Giovannis in this world, trapped in their tiny little rooms, waiting for their David to come back.

Before reading this book the only thing I knew about James Baldwin was what the general public knew about him: acclaimed writer, civil rights activist, revolutionary. But after reading this, I get it why he is a literary giant. He should be a required reading in school curriculum. Because imagine publishing a book discussing sexuality in 1956 America, where openly being anything other than 'normal' could get you killed.

”Giovanni’s Room”, in the end is a painfully honest introspection into the nature of humankind. There were times where we would hate David as he turns his back and leaves the room again and again. And we fool ourselves into believing that had we been in his place, we would have acted differently, would have had courage to be fair, would have been more sincere with ourselves and our needs and those of our beloveds.

But would we really? Because it has been exactly 65 years since the book was released and what has really changed ? 

 "I scarcely know how to describe that room. It became, in a way, every room I had ever been in and every room I find myself in hereafter will remind me of Giovanni’s room."