First Impression Friday will be a meme where you talk about a book that you JUST STARTED! Maybe you’re only a chapter or two in, maybe a little farther. Based on this sampling of your current read, give a few impressions and predict what you’ll think by the end.

Synopsis:

Set in the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality. With a sharp, probing imagination, James Baldwin’s now-classic narrative delves into the mystery of loving and creates a moving, highly controversial story of death and passion that reveals the unspoken complexities of the human heart.

It’s the end of the workweek—yay! Technically, it is already Saturday, but I still hope the week has been kind to everyone. I hope you’re all ending it on a high note. Just like that, we are already in the second half of the ninth month of the year. This month has been going by much quicker than I expected. Still, it has been quite a ride. In the past two weeks, I ended my employment with my previous company and immediately started with my new one. I am still adapting to my new environment, but everything has been going well. So far. I hope this is how the tempo will be in the coming months. But how time flies! Time takes its natural course, with little regard for us. I hope that as the year progresses, everyone will be showered with blessings and good news. May the hard work you have put in be repaid. With the weekend finally here, I hope everyone has a great one. It’s time to dress down and spend the long weekend resting from the rigors of a demanding career, pursuing your passions, completing household chores, spending time with loved ones, or simply relaxing.

After weeks of relentless rain—it had been raining practically the entire month of August—the past week finally saw the sun shining brilliantly. There have been occasional rains, but this is certainly better than what August was like. However, some parts of the country are still experiencing rain. The monsoon season has certainly made its presence felt. Ironically, the southern part of the country has been experiencing extreme heat caused by the super El Niño. Wherever you are in the Philippines or elsewhere in the world, I hope you’re all doing well—physically, mentally, and emotionally. Anyway, with the end of the workweek comes a fresh First Impression Friday update. In September, I commenced a new literary journey. Crossing the Pacific from my previous venture into Asian literature, I am now in the midst of a literary adventure across the vast landscape of American literature.

American literature has been a staple of my annual literary journey. With American literature being among the most readily available, I guess one can never escape it. I also realized that I have several works of American literature in my ongoing reading challenges. My current read, however, is not among them. Still, James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room is listed among the 1,001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, technically making it part of my ongoing challenges. It has been my goal to read at least twenty books from the list annually. Interestingly, it was must-read lists that introduced me to the highly esteemed American writer. During the first year of the pandemic, I obtained copies of his works Go Tell It on the Mountain and Giovanni’s Room. I have already read the former, but the latter was left to gather dust on my bookshelf. This made me reconsider including Giovanni’s Room in my ongoing literary adventure.

Originally published in 1956, Giovanni’s Room is narrated by a man named David. As he peers out the window of the house he rented with his fiancée, Hella, in the south of France, he contemplates their relationship. He gets inebriated while staring out at the darkness. He begins to realize the cracks that are starting to materialize in their relationship. Slowly, it dawns on him that he never truly loved Hella. Hella, to whom he proposed marriage before she went to Spain, has returned to the United States. As the alcohol muddies his memory, he drifts back to his memories of the titular Giovanni. Giovanni is an Italian man David fell in love with while he was living in Paris. David still has strong feelings for Giovanni. However, he laments his inability to embrace and express these feelings.

As David boards a train for Paris, he reminisces about his past. He vividly remembers his first sexual encounter with another man. He was still a teenager when he spent every summer day with Joey in Brooklyn. Their initial bond transformed into a sexual encounter during a sleepover. However, the next day, David left, upset about how things had unfolded even though he had enjoyed the experience. He then tried to avoid Joey. He thinks that his attraction to men will threaten his masculine identity. He also worries about how it would break his father’s heart. This is especially important for David because he is the only one his father has; his mother passed away when he was younger, although his aunt lived with them. To feel like a “real man,” he acted out like any teenager, getting drunk with friends. To further validate his sense of masculinity, he started bullying Joey.

While out drinking one night, David crashes his car, prompting his father to ask him about what he wants to do with his life. Hoping to make his father happy, David eventually joins the Army. There, he has a secret affair with another soldier, who is discharged after it is discovered that he is gay. After returning from the Army, David travels to Paris. He wants to create some distance between himself and his father’s expectations of him being a certain kind of man. It is in Paris that he proposes to Hella. To contemplate his proposal, Hella travels to Spain. However, while waiting for her return, David is kicked out of his hotel. Jacques, an older gay male acquaintance who spends money on young men, rescues him by giving him money. It is while they are dining at Guillaume’s gay bar that they notice the new server, Giovanni.

David is instantly attracted to him, even though he tries to hide it. He pretends to be heterosexual, although everyone who knows him knows that he is not. David and Giovanni become friends, which eventually blossoms into a relationship. I just finished the first part, with a mystery developing. The novel opened with David mentioning that Giovanni was about to be executed. The first part concludes with the story flashing forward to the present, as David is about to depart for Paris. Giovanni’s Room is developing into an interesting story. David’s internalized homophobia provides the story with an interesting dimension. This major arc allows his story to explore identity, sexuality, the meaning of masculinity, and even race. It examines how David is adversely shaped by gender and societal expectations.

As I enter the novel’s second part, I am looking forward to seeing how David’s story unfolds. The book is deceptively slender, but it packs a lot. How about you, fellow readers? What are you reading this weekend? I hope you’re enjoying your current book.