It takes an incredibly talented author to throw a reader into a pit of despair, and James Baldwin is one such author. He's new to me, and when I picked up Giovanni's Room I had no idea what it was about, other than it was set in Paris. It is my 38th Penguin Great, and by far the best.
Last time I felt like this was having finished The Mill on the Floss, and if memory serves, I wrote a brief, fly-by blog post around 2am saying it had affected me like no other book. And this is my second Mill on the Floss moment. I really don't quite know what to say: I'm tired, and very moved by it. It hurt. Giovanni is as real as any living being, and it just hurt. I'm glad to have read it, though believe me, the smile on my face is entirely ironic. I don't feel any happiness, actually. But it's good, and it did what it was supposed to do. I can't keep writing "moving", when what I mean is I'm close to tears, feel faintly sick, and I really just want to go to sleep.
Profound, I suppose, is the word. Perfect, but too painful. Real. James Baldwin nailed it. Perfect, in that respect. Up there with Eliot.
And I want to go to bed, it's late and I'm tired, but I need a cup of coffee or something, something nice, something to take the edge off somehow. A brilliant book, but it cuts.
Baldwin - I haven't read him yet. There's "Tell Me when the train's been gone" on the shelf, waiting, and I feel like I'm not ready yet, but for some strange reasons get the same feeling - he's great, through I haven't read a word yet (same thing I had before I read Lawrence for the first time!) High hopes! I'm glad you loved this and I know you really mean it because this is probably your shortest review ever (isn't it?) and short posts are the most emotive, I think. Lovely post, o!
ReplyDelete"A brilliant book, but it cuts."
ReplyDelete^This. It sums up my feelings,too, after I closed this book. I returned to it and reread and other, less positive, feelings I had while reading crystallized more clearly, but this was my first visceral reaction to it.
This post is very timely - I'm due to read Giovanni's Room for university this term, and it's sitting on my bookshelf waiting to be read!
ReplyDeleteI really hope I enjoy it. I've read Go Tell It on the Mountain before and found it quite profound.
I'd never heard of this book before you mentioned you were going to read it, but it certainly made its way to my TBR list. It sounds crushing and devastating, but definitely worth it.
ReplyDeleteThis is one of my favourite books. I'm so glad you liked it :)
ReplyDeleteThanks all. Have to say, reading this back, I didn't realise *quite* how tired I was! But thanks for your comments, I shall leave this post up :) A bit short and confused, but it was "live blogging" of my crushed, tired little thoughts!
ReplyDelete