I want to start by saying Baldwin’s prose is absolutely beautiful. I struggle to picture what’s happening in books, but his prose was so atmospheric, it was as if I could see it happening in front of me. I love that it took place in Paris, as a sort of juxtaposition of freedom compared to the norms in America.

The actual plot didn’t measure up to what oomfs promised me. David and Giovanni are both melodramatic and insufferable. Both were extremely misogynistic and Giovanni was also biphobic. Giovanni was described as beautiful but I couldn’t understand what attached David to him. Giovanni seemed like a petulant child for most of the story and we weren’t really shown insight into their relationship, yet it was supposedly more than just lust between the two.

Everyone felt like a one dimensional caricature of what they represented. Hella is a flat caricature of a woman. David is the toxic masculinity American. Giovanni is the amourous, melodramatic Italian. Guillame and Jacques were hated by David and Giovanni for being effeminate “fairies” with one being a predator of younger men.

The text felt extremely superficial, there wasn’t anything beyond self hatred by all the gay men, no insight or analysis into internal homophobia and heteronormativity felt by David and I wished we saw love between David and Giovanni instead of being told it was there.