This was a short book, but a good one. I read it all in one day as, similar to Lolita, it reads like a car crash you can't look away from. David is a repressed homosexual white American man with daddy issues who moves to Paris whilst his non-committal fiancee is 'finding herself' on an extended excursion in Spain. Once in Paris, David wastes little time in finding out the queer quarters and falling in with their bohemian coterie, which mostly involves getting trashed every night and looking for attractive young men to have sex with. After falling for an Italian barman called Giovanni, David embarks on a months long love affair whilst living in the man's tiny squalid apartment. The room comes to symbolise the claustrophobic lifestyle that gay men of the 1950s are forced to adopt, but also David's compartmentalism of his homosexuality.
Once his fiancee, Hella, joins him in Paris, David promptly ditches Giovanni to pursue a conventional and respectable life. The rejection sends Giovanni off the rails, eventually leading him to murder and ruin. The novel is interesting in that it features an all white cast written by a black author, a rarity of its time. Controversial opinion follows the book, is it a tragic lament about repressed sexuality and identity, or a squalid and unflattering portrayal of the queer scene? Crossdressing predatory gay men are referred to as 'disgusting old fairies', and the older men on the scene are exploitative pimps using money and power to extort sex from younger men. There is much that is squalid about subcultures forced to operate on the fringes, but Baldwin's portrayal of women is also problematic. You could argue the unpleasant depiction comes from the turbulent mind of the protagonist. Overall, a very engaging read.
Rating: 4/5
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