His American publishers, Knopf, however, wanted another novel about Harlem life. I could not handle both propositions in the same book. ‘‘I certainly could not possibly have-not at that point in my life-handled the other great weight, the ‘Negro problem.’ The sexual-moral light was a hard thing to deal with. In that interview, Baldwin also stated that his book was ‘‘not so much about homosexuality, it is what happens if you are so afraid that you finally cannot love anybody.’’ Since “Go Tell It on the Mountain,” set in Harlem, had dealt with the African-American experience, it came as a surprise to Baldwin’s editors that he had written a novel in which all the characters were white. I saw him in the headlines, which reminded me that I was already working on him without knowing it.’’ He had been arrested and was later guillotined. And, two or three days later, I saw his face in the headlines of a Paris paper.
He spoke of using some of the people he met: ‘‘We all met in a bar, there was a blond French guy sitting at a table, he bought us drinks. Some of the atmosphere in “Giovanni’s Room” came from close observation and experience, as Baldwin made clear in an interview in 1980.
0 kommentar(er)
