Book 5 of the year. It’s going to be hard to top this one. #GiovannisRoom #JamesBaldwin #books #amReading #IAmReading

Book 5 of the year. It’s going to be hard to top this one. #GiovannisRoom #JamesBaldwin #books #amReading #IAmReading

Finished reading #GiovannisRoom by the great #JamesBaldwin last night. And what a book. Of course it’s a great #queer book, and that would be enough. But it’s also so much more. It says at least as much about America and the careless condition of the rich American dilettante as Fitzgerald in Gatsby, at least as much about love, betrayal and guilt as Zola in Thérèse Raquin. And with such an economy of style but richness of expression that I hope he made #Capote seethe with envy.

I’m sitting here listening to a #podcast a student made about #GiovannisRoom by #JamesBaldwin for his final project (including a background score of some of Baldwin’s favorite #jazz pieces). It doesn’t get any better than this. #professor #professorlife #academia #AcademicMastodon #LitStudies @litstudies

Literarischer #1Dezember

„Perhaps home is not a place but simply an irrevocable condition.“

#JamesBaldwin #GiovannisRoom Tod 1987

I taught #GiovannisRoom by #JamesBaldwin yesterday and ended with this line (Hella’s) from the novel: “What’s the good of an American who isn’t happy? Happiness was all we had.” You could have heard a pin drop. Even in 1956, Baldwin had our number. #LitStudies #LitScholars