14 LITERARY REVIEW
THE FOUNDER February 2022
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
The Other Bennet Sister by Janice Hadlow
LIAM ANTHONY ELVISH | LITERARY REVIEW EDITOR
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hen the Liberal politician Jeremy Thorpe infamously invited his male lover Norman Scott back to his mother’s house for a night of passion back in the early 1960s (a time when homosexuality was still an illegal offence in Britain), it was Giovanni’s Room he suggestively placed as reading-matter on the bedside cabinet for his meek companion. The novel had seemingly, in the space of a few short years of its publication in 1956, become something of a surreptitious sensation across both sides of the Atlantic, particularly among gay and bisexual circles, already gaining some prominence prior to the swinging sexual revolution of the ensuing decade. James Baldwin’s work details the exploits of David, a young American man residing in Paris and seemingly undertaking a period of soul-searching as he discovers a side of himself hitherto suppressed by his conventional upbringing. Baldwin details the seedy underground of the Parisian homosexual circuit, with all its nighthawks, drifters and decadents, prone to activity that is best left behind closed doors in the early hours. Amongst such a miscellaneous cohort, David meets Giovanni, an attractive Italian bartender whose sultry looks beguile the protagonist. The two become intimately acquainted, resulting in David escorting Giovanni back to his small, cheaply rented room; something the latter notes as beyond any question ‘when it is perfectly obvious to both of us what is going to happen’.
The complexities of David’s life become clear with the distant presence of his girlfriend Hella, who has gone to visit Spain to consider marriage with David and with whom he is in constant contact via letters. That such a relationship is official and consummated does not deter David from frequenting the bar regularly and continuing his liaisons with the youthfully exciting Giovanni. Increasing frustrations is the presence of the salacious Jacques, an older man who favours the company of handsome younger men, and who mockingly foresees much of the emotional turmoil David shall endure upon meeting Giovanni. The correspondence between bisexuality and an underlying indecisiveness is powerfully conveyed in Baldwin’s prose, as David stands perpetually conflicted between his dual affection for both Giovanni and Hella. The author masterfully exhibits his grasping of the tenderness of the individual human being, a passion he articulated in person as well as in print (if anyone be in any doubt then do go online and watch his superb speeches given at the Oxford Union or interviews on The Dick Cavett Show for further clarity). Significantly, all the characters are Caucasian; if Baldwin’s ethnicity as an African-American writer in the 1950s provoking reaction from hostile quarters was something of an inevitability, then his own homosexuality being added to the mix and garnering opposition was an unquestionable certainty. For this novel, he thus bravely concentrated on the latter, and left the former aside for separate projects, later confessing that he ‘could not handle both propositions in the same book. There was not room for it.’
Giovanni’s Room is the prototype for the modern gay romance; fervent, engrossing, and tender. It is a novel that combines the sensuality of D.H. Lawrence’s Lady Chatterley’s Lover, with many of the closeted insecurities presented in E.M. Forster’s Maurice, showcasing a passionate relationship between two male beings, circumstantially caught up in a covert environment that sets up for a heart-wrenching denouement as the reader approaches its final tragic chapter.
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen is a firm favourite amongst romance readers because of its comforting storyline, but we have often found ourselves asking what might have become of Mary Bennet, the overlooked, awkward sister. Hadlow takes a deeper, sympathetic glimpse into Mary’s temperament, drawing on elements of the original novel. As her mother criticises her looks, her father makes a favourite of Lizzie and her sisters pair off, Mary is left alone. When the sisters marry and the Bennet’s experience a family death, Mary must begin her own journey. After leaving for London, Mary drastically grows as a person, learning a balance between knowledge and emotions and opening herself up to love. Hadlow keeps us turning the pages, desperate to find out if Mary chooses her own path to happiness. If You Were Me by Sheila O’Flanagan
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Three Romance Books to Read This February XANTHE MCCRACKEN | CONTENT WRITER
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ith February being the month of love, it seems only right to immerse ourselves in a romance novel. Here are my top three favourite romances for the perfect February.
The urge to take a trip to a warm climate among these cold days in England has all crossed our minds; by reading If You Were Me, you can do exactly that. Carlotta O’Keefe has a wedding to plan with her fiancée Chris, but when she is called to Seville on a work matter, her life begins to turn upside down. In Seville she encounters her first love, Luke Evans, who broke her heart a long time before, but now has grown into a mature and intriguing man. Carlotta must decide on her own romantic path to happiness. O’Flanagan’s flawed and relatable characters make this novel an enjoyable, easy read. If you’re looking for a romance that will leave you in a reverie of love, this is it.
