I love James Baldwin's books! As some of you may have read my review on "Go Tell it on the Mountain" - his books are amazingly full of emotion and bitter tragedy that has been perpetuated by the society in which they silence the main character. James Baldwin is awfully good at presenting voice to us - there is a natural occurrence for every one of his characters to have a tinge of sadness to their voice - and that ultimately becomes the outer layer as you get deeper into the book.
I found this book whilst browsing in...a Waterstones again. I get it - my life isn't that exciting.
Characters:
I really liked Giovanni. I felt like he was not the typical misunderstood trope of racial segregation. But, he was also isolated and labelled by other things in his life that ultimately came to shape him later on.
Themes:
As in a lot of Baldwin's fiction - Identity is a key theme. Giovanni becomes defined by several different things - even his own tragedies leave scars that change him. This is probably one of those themes that Baldwin simply cannot be beaten at.
Storyline:
Love triangle. Not like romance love triangle. But there is a love triangle. Again, this is linked to the identity of Giovanni as it comes to change almost everything about him - and the main thing is that he can change his entire personality and still be predominately defined by his skin colour to other people. Oh my god.
Verdict:
I give this book 9
100% for characters: I loved Giovanni's character. Just so tragic!
100% for themes: Again, nobody does identity better than Baldwin
100% for storyline: The love triangle, the changing of fate - it was all so raw and beautifully written!
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