Giovanni's Room Part One, Chapter 3 Summary & Analysis

PART ONE, Chapter 3

Summary

David, Giovanni, Jacques, and Guillaume close the bar at five in the morning and hop into a taxi heading to Les Halles (the central food market in Paris) for breakfast. David stares out the window of the taxi and reflects on the morning sun and how it lights up the river and city streets. He wonders how he will tell Giovanni that he is not sexually attracted to him, but that they can still remain friends. When they arrive at a crossroads, Giovanni suggests an alternate location that is less of a tourist trap.

Guillaume criticizes the restaurant they arrive at as dirty and filled with vermin, but the men proceed inside anyway. Once inside, Giovanni is greeted by the hostess and they exchange pleasantries. The hostess playfully remarks that Giovanni is rich now and delighted to see that he has brought his rich friends along with him. After Giovanni introduces the hostess to David, Jacques, and Guillaume, they invite the woman to have a drink with them at the bar. The men spread out amongst the bar patrons, who are a combination of older men and young men. Guillaume flirts with some younger men, while Giovanni finds himself seated between an older gentleman and a young man with red hair.

Before Jacques decides to offer one of the younger men at the bar a drink, he congratulates David for finally letting his guard down and asks him whether David will write to Hella to tell her about this evening. David rebukes Jacques for his insinuation that he is acting any differently and tells Jacques to mind his own business. At the very least, Jacques says, he hopes that David will treat Giovanni with less malice than David has treated him. Hoping to turn the conversation away from himself, David scrutinizes Jacques’ lifestyle and expresses disgust in Jacques’ desperation and constant need to pay men for sex. Jacques closes the conversation by leaving David with the advice to love and to let himself be loved, lest he find himself in ruin.

Giovanni and David retreat to the dining room of the restaurant where they serve oysters and wine. Giovanni tells David about how he met Guillaume when he first moved to Paris, and how Guillaume offered him a job at the bar. After they finish their drink and oysters, David returns to Giovanni’s room, and the two have sex.

Back in the present, David’s remembrance is interrupted by the caretaker of the house. As David is due to leave in the morning, the caretaker is there to take inventory of the place. She inspects the house and questions David as to why he has not been seen around town, where Hella is, and if he has been eating. David coyly responds to her questions, embarrassed by the fact that he has gotten so drunk. Before the caretaker leaves, she advises David that a man should not be alone and the best thing he could do is return home and get married. After she leaves, David proceeds to clean the bathroom and the rest of the house, all the while thinking of Giovanni and the impending morning.

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