Classic Novella Reviews: GIOVANNI'S ROOM; THE POSTMAN ALWAYS RINGS TWICE; THE DEATH OF IVAN ILYICH

Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin

Dial Press, January 1956. 169 pages. Baldwin's first publisher, Knopf, rejected the book due to the theme of homosexuality.

I'm committed to reading novellas this November. I got a jump on it by reading Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin a few days early. What a heartbreaking story!

David, the main character and narrator of the story, is an expat living in France in the 1950s. He left the US for a variety of reasons, many related to his poor relationship with his father and what he saw in himself as a character flaw -- his desire to be with men. While in Paris he meets up with other expats and falls for an American girl, Hella. He asks her to marry him but she goes off to Spain to ponder the answer. While she is gone, David meets Giovanni is a bar and the two start a relationship, eventually moving in together. Even though David is living with Giovanni, he is conflicted about their relationship, convinced what they are doing is bad and wrong. To David's relief, Hella returns from Spain and accepts his offer of marriage. David's handling of the situation is evasive and destructive to all three people: Hella, Giovanni, and David. The novel ends on a note of resignation.

James Baldwin, as you may know, was a gay man who left the US for France in 1948. He was sure if he didn't leave the country he'd end up either killing himself, like a friend did, or in jail. Homosexuality was outlawed at the time in the US but not in France. Baldwin's own despair, loneliness, conflicted feelings populated this story. What should have been a joyous love story between David and Giovanni ended up being a curse. David's lack of self-acceptance condemned three people. While David's, and by extension James' stories were tragic, the writing was so beautiful. It reminded me a little of reading Lolita by Nabokov. The topic was one thing but the writing, oh the writing, was a whole other thing. 

Giovanni's Room is a tragic love story with no happy ending but it is also instructive. It reminds us that people, all people, deserve to love and be loved no matter who they choose.

My rating: 4 stars.

The Postman Always Rings Twice by James M. Cain

Knopf, 1934. 188 pages.

The Postman Always Rings Twice was both successful and notorious at the time of its publication in 1934. Thought to be a remarkable crime novel of the roman noir genre, it sold well and is now regarded as one of the best crime novels of the 20th century. It was, however, banned in Boston due to the sexuality and violence it portrays. It has been made into films seven times and is credited with inspiring Camus' The Stranger.

The story is narrated by Frank Chambers, a grifter, who stops at a diner in California and ends up working there. It is the Depression so jobs don't come along everyday. Frank is immediately attracted to the owner's wife, Cora. They start an illicit affair and scheme on how to murder her husband while making it look like an accident. It takes two tries but they pull it off. This, of course, makes both Cora and Frank suspects for murder. They get off on a technicality and honestly I wondered what the last half of the book had in store for the reader. A plot twist I didn't see coming is what.

Don and I listened to the audiobook together. As we finished this short book Don wondered aloud what the title meant, since there is no postman in the story. I guessed at an answer and, not satisfied, he looked it up. You know how easy it is to jump down rabbit holes on the Internet. I won't tell you the answer because that will give away the plot twist, but I will tell you the phrase "The postman always rings twice" originated when a fellow screenwriter, Vincent Lawrence, was commiserating with the author about the anxiety he felt while waiting for mail from the studios. He noted that the postman always rang twice to make sure someone heard. Look up how this relates to the story after you finish it.

The Postman Always Rings Twice is my Classics Club Spin #39 selection. I only listed classic novellas in my list of choices this fall since I am also participating in a novella challenge. 

My rating: 3.5 stars.  Don's rating: 4 stars.

  

The Death of Ivan Ilyich by Leo Tolstoy

First published in 1886 in Russian; first published in English in 1887 in a book in called My Husband and I; published alone as a novella in English in 1902. 86 pages.

Thought to be one of the finest novellas ever written, The Death of Ivan Ilyich was written shortly after Leo Tolstoy's conversion experience in the late 1870s. After that time this famous Russian author's writing seemed to focus more on the meaning of life and pondering some of life's big questions than before. In Ivan Ilyich, Tolstoy explores death. 

Ivan Ilyich is a man determined to make something of himself and is always striving for a better job posting where he makes more money. When he gets his last job, as a high-court judge, he decks out his house in a way that seems good and classy but it is really like everyone's home who is striving to live above their station. Keeping up appearances is very important to him. When he starts experiencing pain and an odd taste in his mouth, he consults a series of doctors trying to find the magic cure to what ails him. Instead of spending his remaining days with his family is loving communion, he is irritated by them, even thinking he hates his wife and daughter.

During his painful process of dying Ivan Ilyich doesn't think he deserves to die because he thinks of himself as a good person. Nothing and no one can help him feel better except a servant, Gerasim. He is the only person in Ivan's life who is not afraid of death and feels compassion toward his employer. Ivan comes to view Gerasim as living an authentic life whereas everyone else is living an artificial life. Once he makes this revelation, he is able to bless his son and forgive his wife and daughter. In the end death isn't the end but a moving into the light.

Today The Death of Ivan Ilyich is considered a medical humanities classic and is used by medical educators to highlight doctor-patient conversations and how one should be fully present with ill patients, especially those who are dying. It has been especially helpful for those professionals working in hospice care.

My husband and I listened to the audiobook together on a recent trip. He more than I, was swept up in the story and in Leo Tolstoy's writing. He reminded me of the lessons we learned from George Saunder's book, Swimming in the Pond in the Rain: In Which Four Russians Give a Master Class on Writing. In his introduction to the book Saunders says all good writing addresses these four questions: 

How are we supposed to be living down here? 

What were we put here to accomplish? 

What should we value? 

What is truth, anyway, and how might we recognize it?"

Leo Tolstoy, one of the four Russians examined in Saunder's book, addresses all of these questions in spades. Perhaps this is why we are still reading it over 150 years later and still getting something out of it.

My rating: 4 stars; Don's rating: 5 stars.

-Anne