David shares a meal with Giovanni, who tells him how he came to work for and endure Guillaume. Jacques urges David to give in to his feelings, wanting his friend to enjoy what is left of his youth. David worries about the intensity of his feelings, but he follows Giovanni to a new bar with Jacques and Guillaume. Jacques fails to attract the young Italian’s attention, but Giovanni and David form an instant connection.

David follows Jacques to Guillaume’s gay bar where they meet the new barman, Giovanni. Without money or a place to stay, he meets with Jacques-an older gay man-and exploits his generosity. David strains his relationships with his aunt and father, eventually moving out and away to France after a drunken accident and time in the army.ĭavid’s account of France begins two years after his arrival. His fears of persecution begin to outweigh his desires, and he aggressively pushes Joey away, rebelling with alcohol and women to keep his attraction a secret.

David’s first sexual encounter with a boy, Joey, excites and frightens him deeply. In Part 1, David recollects parts of his American childhood while living with his father and Aunt Ellen. From this frame narrative, David looks back at his youth in America and his recent years in France. His fiancée, Hella, broke off their engagement to return to America, and his lover, Giovanni, is set to be executed in the morning for murdering his employer, Guillaume. The novel opens in the present-day of the 1950s in the South of France where the first-person narrator, David, drinks heavily to dull the pain of his recent losses.

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