Description

By (author) Baldwin, James – Phillips Caryl; By (author) Baldwin, James; Introduction by Phillips Caryl

Short /annotation
Set in the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence, this title presents a story of a fated love triangle that explores the conflicts between desire, conventional morality and sexual identity.

One of the BBC”s ”100 Novels That Shaped Our World”

Baldwin”s ground-breaking second novel
, which established
him
as
one of the great American writers of his time

David, a young American in 1950s Paris, is waiting for his fiancée to return from vacation in Spain. But when he meets Giovanni, a handsome Italian barman, the two men are drawn into an intense affair. After three months David”s fiancée returns and, denying his true nature, he rejects Giovanni for a ”safe” future as a married man. His decision eventually brings tragedy.

Filled with passion, regret and longing, this story of a fated love triangle has become a landmark of gay writing. James Baldwin caused outrage as a black author writing about white homosexuals, yet for him the issues of race, sexuality and personal freedom were eternally intertwined.

”Exquisite… a feat of fire-breathing, imaginative daring” Guardian

”Excruciating beauty” San Francisco Chronicle

”Audacious… remarkable… elegant and courageous” Caryl Phillips

Review quote
If Van Gogh was our 19th-century artist-saint, James Baldwin is our 20th-century one

Review quote
Baldwin writes of these matters with unusual candour and yet with such dignity and intensity

Review quote
Audacious… remarkable… elegant and courageous

Review quote
Baldwin, in this novel, made clear that he could work wonders with the light and shade of intimacy

Review quote
Startling… This is Mr. Baldwin”s subject, the rareness and difficulty of love

Biographical note
Born in Harlem in 1924, Baldwin had an early career as a teenage preacher. He lived in Paris from 1948-1956 and his first novels, the autobiographical GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN and GIOVANNI”S ROOM established him as a promising novelist and anticipated some of the themes of his later works, such as racism and sexuality.He became a prominent spokesperson for racial equality, especially during the civil rights movement. He lived in France during his last years. Baldwin died in 1987.