Books like

Books like Giovanni’s Room

12 books with a reading profile close to Giovanni’s Room by James Baldwin. Deep, inward-looking, open-ended and thought-provoking; a moderate read.

  1. 1 The Awakening

    The Awakening

    by Kate Chopin

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    Edna Pontellier lives within the rigid social structures of late nineteenth-century Louisiana, moving between the French Quarter in New Orleans and the vacation community of Grand Isle.

  2. 2 El túnel

    El túnel

    by Ernesto Sabato

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    Juan Pablo Castel, a painter, tells the reader at the start that he has killed Maria Iribarne, and then he explains why.

  3. 3 Play It As It Lays

    Play It As It Lays

    by Joan Didion

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    Maria Wyeth is a thirty-year-old former actress living in Los Angeles who spends her days driving the California freeway system in a silver Corvette.

  4. 4 Death of a Salesman

    Death of a Salesman

    by Arthur Miller

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    Willy Loman is an aging traveling salesman in Brooklyn whose mental health is fracturing under the weight of professional failure and debt.

  5. 5 Franny and Zooey

    Franny and Zooey

    by J.D. Salinger

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    Set in Manhattan during the 1950s, the narrative centers on two siblings of the brilliant Glass family as they navigate a shared spiritual crisis.

  6. 6 Hedda Gabler

    Hedda Gabler

    by Henrik Ibsen

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    Hedda Gabler returns from a honeymoon to a life of stifling domesticity and debt alongside her academic husband, George Tesman.

  7. 7 No Longer Human

    No Longer Human

    by Osamu Dazai

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    The narrative follows Yozo Oba, a young man who feels physically and mentally alienated from the human race.

  8. 8 The Bell Jar

    The Bell Jar

    by Sylvia Plath

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    Esther Greenwood, a college student from Massachusetts, wins a competitive summer internship at a fashion magazine in mid-century New York City.

  9. 9 The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

    The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter

    by Carson McCullers

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    Set in a 1930s Georgia mill town, the narrative centers on John Singer, a deaf-mute man who becomes the silent confidant for four disparate neighbors.

  10. 10 A Separate Peace

    A Separate Peace

    by John Knowles

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    Set against the backdrop of World War II at the Devon School, the story follows Gene Forrester, an intellectual student, and his charismatic roommate Phineas.

  11. 11 The Catcher in the Rye

    The Catcher in the Rye

    by J.D. Salinger

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    Holden Caulfield, a teenage boy recently expelled from Pencey Prep, wanders through New York City over a cold December weekend.

  12. 12 Sophie’s Choice

    Sophie’s Choice

    by William Styron

    Also deep and inward-looking · narrative, psychology

    In 1947 Brooklyn, a young aspiring writer named Stingo moves into a boarding house and becomes entangled in the volatile relationship between Sophie Zawistowska, a Polish Catholic survivor of Auschwitz, and Nathan Landa…

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