Pam’s Reviews > Giovanni’s Room > Status Update

From the way David describes simple things about Giovanni, clearly he is in love with the person, but hates that from now on his world changed because of it:

“He went to the sink and started washing his faced. He combed his hair. I watched him. He grinned at me in the mirror, looking, suddenly, beautiful and happy. And young - I had never in my life before felt so helpless or so old.”

Ah David 🥺

“I was in a terrible confusion. Sometimes I thought, but this is your life. Stop fighting it…but I am happy. And he loves me. I am safe. Sometimes, when he was not near me, I thought, I will never let him touch me again. When it was over, I lay in the dark and listened to his breathing and dreamed of the touch of hands…which would have the power to crush me and make me whole again.”

Elegant prose, magnetic storytelling. Reminds me of books like The Unbearable Lightness of Being and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.

I like to find quotes in the book that sums up its essence. These are perhaps the one:

“Nobody can stay in the garden of Eden..I wonder why.”

“Confusion is a luxury which only the very, very young can possibly afford.”