it is only the body

avoidance, gay flashbacks and Giovanni's Room

Last week on the plane to Italy I read Giovanni’s Room. I had never read it before – when I was younger I had a strange block with reading ‘gay books’ and watching ‘gay films’ that only really changed when I started being asked to blurb queer novels and I developed an appetite for this kind of fiction. I had heard good things, but Giovanni’s Room blew m…