About this title: The inability of a young American in Paris to confront his sexuality leads to the end of his romance with a woman he hopes to marry, and to his male lover's tragic downfall. Baldwin's eloquent and powerful novel is interesting for its candid examination of a sexually conflicted man, and also for its suppression of the racial problems a gay black ...
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Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Laurel Press
Date Published: 1995
ISBN-13:9780440328810ISBN:0440328810
Description: Fair. No dust jacket as issued. Mass market (rack) paperback. Glued binding. 224 p. Audience: General/trade. mmp 19a4, shelf wear to cover read more
Binding: Perfect Bound Paper
Publisher: Dell
Date Published: 1965
Description: Very Good. Mass Market Paperback. 12mo-over 6¾"-7¾" tall. Light wear, crease to back wrap. Age yellowed. Binding tight, pages clean. Light scuffing to wraps. read more
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Shows definite wear, and perhaps considerable marking on inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Good. 2000-Paperback----Used-Good-Hall Street Books proudly ships from Brooklyn, NY. All orders are processed and shipped within 24 hours, M-F. 100% money back No-Worry guarantee with expedited delivery and delivery confirmation available. read more
Edition: Second Printing
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Dell Books, New York, NY, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1964
Description: Good with no dust jacket. Pb, light wear/soil, crease at spine, initials on inside cover, name on 1st pg; 12mo 7"-7½" tall; 224 pages. read more
"I read this book in about 4 hours this weekend. I wish I had read this before I read 'Another Country', because nothing can compare with that. I was also hoping for something a little more sexually explicit, like in 'Another Country'. My ex-boyfriend Kevin recommended this to me back in 1999. I could see how he related to this novel, as the main character makes a wreck of his loved ones by giving in to his own fear. Like the main character, Kevin also became in touch with his homosexual feelings while in Paris. I could see the sense of tragedy that Kevin believed was inherent in gay lives. I wonder if I had read this while we were together it could have given me insight that would have made the relationship last, or if it would have given me the upper hand in our warfare."
"I read this because it was considered a radical book in its day - published in 1956. It's in large part the internal dialog of a young American man (David) in Paris who is conflicted about his sexuality. It appears he has run away to Paris to "find himself" yet in a sense he's run there to escape himself/his reality. It exposes much of the dark underbelly of the mid-century Paris gay scene. It's a difficult story to read due to his internal conflict and the sadness that results from his choices and his indecision. I didn't give it a very high mark b/c I don't find the prolonged introspection very interesting - it gets old after a while. Plus, I found it sort of unbelievable that David often thinks in sociological terms rather than personal ones. I believe the book was written as a statement about how society treats homosexual men or "others"; in that respect it is successful."
"i had been both looking forward to and dreading reading this book for a long time. i was dreading it because i've only read one thing written by baldwin before (another country) and so loved it that i was afraid of reading another of his books. i was looking forward to it for the same reason, with hope and expectation. i'm so relieved to say that not only was i not disappointed, but i was exhilarated reading this. his writing is truly beautiful, and his story - the passion and the pain of the main character - was both riveting and gut wrenching. all of it, this was a wonderful read. i only wish that i was reading it in a better frame of mind, that i could have had the time and mental capacity to sit and really savor this book, because it deserves it. and i would have enjoyed it even more if i'd been able to do that. it's a short, easy, flowing read that shouldn't take much time at all; i'm already looking forward to reading it again.
his story is about a man trying to come to terms with his homosexual feelings, but it doesn't have to be about just that. it's about anything that we lie to ourselves about; it's about how we judge others for the life they lead; it's about how we think of home and what home is to us; it's about how we hurt those we love intentionally and unintentionally. it's about so many thing as well as being an exploration of homosexuality in the 50's. i loved this book.
a quote i kept coming back to, as i'm working through issues of grief:
"Perhaps everybody has a garden of Eden, I don't know; but they have scarcely seen their garden before they see the flaming sword. Then, perhaps, life only offers the choice of remembering the garden or forgetting it. Either, or: it takes strength to remember, it takes another kind of strength to forget, it takes a hero to do both. People who remember court madness through pain, the pain of the perpetually recurring death of their innocence; people who forget court another kind of madness, the madness of the denial of pain and the hatred of innocence; and the world is mostly divided between madmen who remember and madmen who forget. Heroes are rare."
"'Somebody,' said Jacques, 'your father or mine, should have told us that not many people have ever died of love. But multitudes have perished, and are perishing every hour - and in the oddest places! - for the lack of it.'"
"'Ah!' she said, 'men may be at the mercy of women - I think men like that idea, it strokes the misogynist in them. But if a particular man is ever at the mercy of a particular woman - why, he's somehow stopped being a man. And the lady, then, is more neatly trapped than ever.'""
"I think the gender roles of the text as a whole were kind of weird. We didn't get any glimpses of female homosexuality, so Hella's character gives us the only insight into expected/wanted female gender roles. David seems to feel that it is impossible to be a man while being homosexual; doing so "takes away his manhood," where marrying and having children with Hella would cement his manhood for him. He is in a constant state of flux, never sure where his interests actually lie, fighting against conventions of the day and his own physical desire. His belief that he is constructed from without through the people he has relationships with is typified by his accusation that Giovanni wants to "make him the girl," although Giovanni maintains that if he wanted to have a relationship with a girl, he'd choose a girl. His constant struggle against debasement and impurity in homosexual relationships seems problematic, while it seems to be typical of narrations of male homosexuality, and I think signals some amount of internalized homophobia. This seems especially the case with David, who fights against his homosexual desire as somehow extraneous from his essential self, as though he were straight first, and just happens to have this little peccadillo. His shame seems to exist in a vicious circle."
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