Smart Reads: Giovanni’s Room
@ Smart Museum of Art, The University of Chicago
Online
Opening Wednesday, June 28th, from 6PM - 7PM
Join in the Smart Museum of Art’s virtual book club!
The Smart Reads series continues in June with James Baldwin’s now-classic narrative, Giovanni’s Room. We invite you to read along with us and engage in a thought-provoking conversation with host Dorian H. Nash.
Register
https://uchicago.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJMtcu6grj8iGdQP6WeHC1P94RzFORazfSlQ#/registration
FREE. To help build a community of participants, capacity is limited and advanced registration is required.
About the book
Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin
In the 1950s Paris of American expatriates, liaisons, and violence, a young man finds himself caught between desire and conventional morality. David is a young American expatriate who has just proposed marriage to his girlfriend, Hella. While she is away on a trip, David meets a bartender named Giovanni to whom he is drawn in spite of himself. Soon the two are spending the night in Giovanni’s curtainless room, which he keeps dark to protect their privacy. But Hella’s return to Paris brings the affair to a crisis, one that rapidly spirals into tragedy. David struggles for self-knowledge during one long, dark night—“the night which is leading me to the most terrible morning of my life.” With a sharp, probing imagination, James Baldwin’s now-classic narrative delves into the mystery of loving and creates a deeply moving story of death and passion that reveals the unspoken complexities of the human heart.
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Tags: Chicago, Hyde Park, James Baldwin, Smart Museum, Smart Reads: Giovanni's Room, The University of Chicago
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