AJ Dunn Reads

  Go Tell It on the Mountain By James Baldwin John Grimes struggles with his father and himself in this novel about a family's relationships with one another and with their Pentecostal Church values. The book follows John's struggle with his father, who is not his biological father (unknown to him) and how his father (Gabriel) treats him poorly and abusively. John finds his way into his faith and hopes it will bring him closer to his father. Gabriel's backstory is explored, showing the moral hypocrisy of the church as Gabriel acts in ways that counter the moral values of the church. He refuses to see his wrongdoing, claiming that he has found forgiveness in God's eyes. Elizabeth's backstory shows her falling away from her religious upbringing when she meets and falls in love with John's biological father. When she meets Gabriel she is brought back to the church and her faith, with the promise that he will take care of her and John. The church is both a positive ...

  Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin An American man named David is on an extended stay in 1950s Paris, unwilling to return home to his widowed father who is desperately trying to get him to do so and refusing to send any sort of significant financial support. His father wonders what it is he is doing in Paris? What David is doing is hanging out in gay bars and restaurants, pretending he is not gay and looking down on those who so obviously are. All the while, he is lusting after one man or another when, in a bar owned by a man named Guillaume, he meets a new bartender working there named Giovanni. Giovanni is a beautiful Italian man with whom David pretends not to notice and then quickly comes to be enamored with. The two begin to spend time together and Giovanni falls quickly in love with David, who is still afraid to be who he knows he truly is. Instead, David holds himself distant and longs for his friend Hella to return from Spain to save him from what he perceives as his deprav...