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The Swimming-Pool Library

by Alan Hollinghurst, Diana Klein (Photographer)

3.74 · rating details · 1,250 ratings · 115 reviews

A literary sensation and bestseller both in England and America, The Swimming-Pool Library is an enthralling, darkly erotic novel of homosexuality before the scourge of AIDS; an elegy, possessed of chilling clarity, for ways of life that can no longer be lived with impunity. "Impeccably composed and meticulously particular in its observation of everything" (Harpers & Queen...more

Paperback, 352 pages

Published September 19th 1989 by Vintage (first published 1988)

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Jun 22, 2011

mark monday rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: queertime, sexathon

i'll start off with a blanket statement: many novels of the Gay Fiction subgenre will fall within two categories.

1. Coming of Age Tales in which the protagonist struggles to come out, often against his unsympathetic surroundings. often tender; occasionally mawkish.

2. a category that i like to call Gay World Novels in which, oh, everyone is pretty much gay. fine. dream on, gays, dream on. if you can't live it...dream it!

to me, the self-relegation of most gay ...more

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Dec 11, 2008

Eric rated it

Shelves: ficciones, dandies

The plot was only intermittently absorbing, but the narrator's tones are utterly addictive. I can't get enough of Hollingburst's style. It can delicately register so many things--shades of emotion, nuances of intellection, as well as symphonies of physical movement, as in the suburban boxing tournament--but never sounds fussy or over-elaborate; very solid and quick, a model for anyone.

I wasn't sure if the rather stark contrast between the rich emotion of Lord Nantwich's old diaries...more

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Sep 14, 2008

Gary Lee rated it

Shelves: gayish-lit, literatti, brit-lit

At times captivatingly beautiful, and at time maddeningly tedious, Hollinghurst's debut novel is about pre-AIDS, early-80's gay live in London. To be expected, there's lots of sex. Most with underage boys or "exotic" black men.
While it wasn't a horrible novel, overall it was a bit too obvious and typical for my tastes.
Rich aristocratic British white male as protagonist? check!
Love affair with servile, poor black man? check!
Gay bashing at the hands of skinheads? ...more

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Jan 09, 2011

Shovelmonkey1 rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: 1001 book readers

Shelves: 1001-books, bookcrossing-books, read-in-2011

This book is tricksily misleading on a number of fronts. At first appearance it's a breezy but self obsessed commentary by flirtatious man about town, William Beckwith; young, monied, unscrupulous, charming and gay. The narrative is archly upper class with frequent references to private mens clubs such as the Corinthian and the Athenaeum. Because of the way it's written it took me about 50 pages (until the mention of Bucks Fizz - the pop group not the drink), to work out that this book is set in...more

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Feb 01, 2012

Larry rated it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I first read this twenty years ago. I remembered the stunning language and prose - descriptive, funny, detailed but not overly fussy, and some clever phrases I have been using for two decades without remembering where I had heard them - but I couldn't remember the plot. When I picked it up to read again last week, I understood why I couldn't remember the plot. There isn't any. When I read it in my youth I suppose I lurched forward to dwell on the naughty bits. Now, every time a sex scene pops up...moreI first read this twenty years ago. I remembered the stunning language and prose - descriptive, funny, detailed but not overly fussy, and some clever phrases I have been using for two decades without remembering where I had heard them - but I couldn't remember the plot. When I picked it up to read again last week, I understood why I couldn't remember the plot. There isn't any. When I read it in my youth I suppose I lurched forward to dwell on the naughty bits. Now, every time a sex scene pops up, I became frustrated and wanted to shout, "Again? Would it KILL you to get a job?"

Things do happen outside of random sex but at a very slow pace. There are several "story lines": The main one is about the 25-year-old Will's unwillingness to ghost write a memoir of an 83-year-old gay aristocrat. He is an aristocratic trust-funder so he doesn't need to work, he would like to be a sorta-writer but that would take his time away from swimming at the pool and cruising for men. The other stories are about the narrator's "loves." One might suspect, at the beginning, that Will's story arc will be one of a shallow, narcissistic, priapismic twit who learns to grow up. Yet grow up he does not. Even when he is severely gay bashed around the middle of the book, he sulks around his current boyfriend's room, worrying he won't be pretty anymore, and after he heals, says, essentially, "well, glad that's over, time for more hot sex." In the end, he is simply a jerk who knows and accepts he's a jerk - I suppose that's growth of a sort. If anyone can point to serious character growth, I'd like to hear it because I must have missed. And AH doesn't even attempt to tie up any of the storylines.

It is brave and bold for AH to assume we will want to follow or empathize with a narrator who tells us he can't imagine what life is like for people who are too ugly or old or too low of libido to have hot, anonymous sex whenever they want. He really thinks this way, even late in the book. In the very last scene he is cruising someone new in the showers - while he presumably still has a boyfriend. But the point here, as many have mentioned, is the prose itself.

This is a book that, should you be able to keep the narrator at a distance, you will want to take slowly if you have the time. There are paragraphs and sentences that made me stop, back up and read again; not because they were confusing but because their mere construction and choice of images was a marvel. In style and tone it is very old-fashioned (Hollinghurst might say Edwardian). It is as if E.M. Forster (whom AH also references) were writing under the influence of too much Viagra. If that's your thing... Some of the sex scenes were quite droll - the one with the dildo-wielding Argentinian was laugh out loud funny. Yet, by the last third of the book I found myself wanting to skim several well-written but interminable scenes - the night at the disco for one - to find some plot.

That's why I have to give it a middling 3 stars. Five for the prose, zero for the plot, one for the narrator's character, four for his elderly doppelganger Lord Nantwich. I guess that equals 3-ish.

A few other strange things: I didn't notice this on the first read, but there are no females in the book. Not one. In fact there is only one straight character, Will's grandfather, and I suppose his 6-year-old nephew. A few straight men are mentioned on the periphery, mostly in the showers at the pool, tolerating the erections and lurking and fondling of Will and his gay cohorts. Really? None of the straight men complain to management? Another thing: the blurbs and industry reviews of this book state that it takes place in "pre-AIDS" London. Maybe so in mindset it was pre-AIDS.It is set in 1983, which, if my calculations are right, was two years into the crisis. By then hundreds of Londoners would have died or fallen ill. But there is no mention of AIDS in the book, unless I skimmed past it and I don't think I did. Would it have killed Will or any of his cruising partners and boyfriends to pick up a newspaper? Even in my little midwestern, no-gay-town people had at least heard the word AIDS by 1983. Also, I couldn't quite figure out the fetish Will and others had with African and other dark-skinned men (and Will's Asian phobia). Can anyone enlighten me?

One more bit of bravery (hubris?) from the author: the diaries of Lord Nantwich show a life that is far more compelling than that of our narrator. And it seems like Will knows this, even if he resists trying to become a more interesting person. It leaves readers like me wondering why AH didn't just make the book about Lord Nantwich and leave Will alone, away from our gaze, to continue cruising. (less)

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Nov 19, 2011

Bembo rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: gay

The year is 1983, Will Beckwith is twenty-five years old, a gay aristocrat public school and Oxford educated, and living a life of leisure and pleasure, not needing to work thanks to the substantial wealth gifted by his notable grandfather, Lord Beckwith. Will tells of his unexpected encounter with the gay eighty-three year old Lord Nantwich who subsequently requests that Will should write his biography based on the abundant diaries he has kept over his eventful life. As Will reads through Lord ...moreThe year is 1983, Will Beckwith is twenty-five years old, a gay aristocrat public school and Oxford educated, and living a life of leisure and pleasure, not needing to work thanks to the substantial wealth gifted by his notable grandfather, Lord Beckwith. Will tells of his unexpected encounter with the gay eighty-three year old Lord Nantwich who subsequently requests that Will should write his biography based on the abundant diaries he has kept over his eventful life. As Will reads through Lord Nantwich's diaries we learn his Lordships colourful past and at the same time Will keeps us informed of his own activities.

Will's life centres on his regular visits the the Corinthian where his enjoys swimming, and even more lingering in the showers admiring and being admired, and he devotes his time to pursing beautiful teenage boys, especially those of colour. His fondness for coloured boys is something he shares with Lord Nantwich whose early diplomatic career took him to Africa.

The plot is fascinating as we learn of Nantwich's past, how it connects with Will; of Will's promiscuous life and his love affairs; of his Will's best friend James and his less successful affairs of the heart; and the various virtually exclusively gay gay men and handsome boys who people the story. It is a candid account, frequently but unsensationally erotic, which makes it all the more shocking.

But what makes The Swimming Pool Library an exceptional book is the sheer quality of the writing, beautiful, shimmering proses of great eloquence, drawing the reader into the enveloping atmosphere of its wholly gay world such that one is happy to be absorbed and seduced by the lives of its participants. It is one of those rare novels that one hopes will never end.

Off course it is possible to find fault, it could be said there is a certain shallowness to some of the characters. Hollinghurst has a fondness for using the occasionally slightly obscure word, I have no problem with this except when the chosen word is quite simply an ugly word which jars with the overall beauty of his writing. But this criticisms are minor within the overall scheme, for this is an outstanding work, a fascinating story, combining mystery and love, funny, sexy, humanly honest, historically enlightening, often subtle in its detail, tender yet decadent; summed up it is one of the best gay novels I have read, and one I must read again for I am sure that it contains much more than I found in one reading.(less)

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Jun 19, 2011

Everett Darling rated it

Shelves: 2011

an account of early 80´s gay living---lots of sex, lots of gyms, and some politics. That it´s predictable is not surprising, that it´s honest deserves however some praise-it´s not a sympathy-vote gay novel, which is refreshing, as many of you will not like the protagonist whose arrogance and sex-drive might seem vulgar, or whatever. It also isn´t a maudlin sob-story with page after page of childhood trauma, familial disavowel, or boyfriends dying of AIDS or gaybashing--and here I want to say tha...more

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Dec 27, 2010

Becky rated it

· review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. What a steaming pile of turd. I thought the Line Of Beauty was rubbish, but at least there was darkness hiding amongst the explicit sex. The Swimming Pool Library has nothing of the sort. Described by some as an elegy to the pre AIDS homosexual world, this was a tale without a single likeable character, with no human bases I could touch down with whatsoever. Perhaps it's because there isn't a single woman in this book. Perhaps it's because the main character is one of those awful dying bree...more

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Jun 04, 2010

Sophie rated it

-I'd surrendered to the prospect of doing nothing, though it kept me busy enough.

-I told myself that I had scooped someone back from the threshold of death, but that seemed incommensurate with the simple routine I had followed, the vital little drill retained from childhood along with all the more complex knowledge that would never prove so useful--convection, sonata form, the names of birds in Latin and French.

-Often those who have swum still have their trunks on and so...more

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Nov 03, 2009

Colin Hogan rated it

I love Hollinghurst, but I guess I was expecting this book to be a little racier. I know it was racy, but while going on a walking tour through Russell Square past the hotel where the narrator's lover works, I had a professor describe it as "pornographic." I've read better / worse.

But Hollinghurst's style is wonderful, and his story of pre-AIDS London and the history of repression and entrapment in England is fantastic. I'm a little annoyed by all of the class issues bet...more

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Jun 08, 2009

Francisco rated it

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I found Hollinghurst's novel to be very enthralling and wonderfully erotic. It's such a fantastic exploration of what it was like to be a part of the gay community in the early 1980s, before AIDS altered the community and its image forever.

From my perspective, very recently influenced by some serious thought about the West Indian community in London, The Swimming-Pool Library struck me as a fascinating perspective: how did the majority view the other, especially an other that was as...moreI found Hollinghurst's novel to be very enthralling and wonderfully erotic. It's such a fantastic exploration of what it was like to be a part of the gay community in the early 1980s, before AIDS altered the community and its image forever.

From my perspective, very recently influenced by some serious thought about the West Indian community in London, The Swimming-Pool Library struck me as a fascinating perspective: how did the majority view the other, especially an other that was as highly sexualized as West Indians in London? It seems that both men and women saw found them exotic and highly attractive; but the attraction was more than simply desire--it seemed rapacious and almost imperialistic. Will Beckwith, the main character, has a very lusty, admirable sexual appetite. However, his tendency to exoticize and take advantage of men younger than him--especially young men of color in the London he knows--is something that I can't admire or approve of. Still, this lustiness is something that Hollinghurst attributes to the age and the race of the title character, not necessarily something to be applauded. It needs to be remembered that Will is elitist, rich, unabashedly egotistical and fairly narcissistic, and, as is noted by a character at one of the clubs (if only I had the book with me right now!), it is quite in vogue for the white men in London to score a young West Indian or African man. Will and his boyfriend at the time, Phil (both are in the club), are assumed to be on the prowl for some "brown," as one of Will's former flames refers to the "white hunger" of the time.

I definitely don't think that Hollinghurst was very critical of Will in the text--at least not in an overly visible or emphatic way. However, he certainly expected the reader to be. His sympathetic yet unembellished portrayal of Will is very much done to give the reader the independence to decide on Will's actions and thoughts. Is he nothing but a narcissist? The reader is forced to look critically on Will as an Oxford graduate and as the grandson of a Peer of the British Empire. His boyfriends are all lower class, and he seems to sometimes ruthlessly exploit them. Hollinghurst, as I said earlier, doesn't visibly admonish Will, but he doesn't excuse his actions either.

The scene when Will is gay-bashed is heart-wrenching. Especially because bashing still happens today, the sheer violence and physicality of the scene is astounding. The way that Will zones out lends the scene a surreality that is hard to stomach. In fact, all of the scenes where Hollinghurst delves into discrimination and violence against the gay community is very well written and elicits very, very strong sympathy from me (is it only because these situations hit so close to home for so many of us? would these scenes seem as tragic to a straight person? to a homophobe? to a "love the sinner hate the sin" type?). When Will reads about Lord Nantwitch's arrest and trial, the reader is pulled into a meditation on the genealogy of oppression that has done so much harm to the community. When we arrive at James' arrest and the subsequent removal of any evidence implicating the arresting officer as a fellow--but quite closeted, apparently--gay, we readers are essentially asked to acknowledge and rail against the very blatant and disgusting discrimination.

[Historical note (full disclosure - I had to look this one up to remember it. All I remembered was Ian McKellen's role in the protests): Section 28 was passed in England in 1988, but was proposed, debated, protested, and hotly contested all through the mid 80s. (link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_28). Hollinghurst was writing throughout this era (TSPL was published in 1988, as a matter of fact), and it would be fairly ignorant of me to avoid this fact. Interestingly enough, Section 28 ensured that novels like The Swimming-Pool Library wouldn't be distributed by local authorities, and would very likely not be found on public & municipal library shelves.]

The Swimming-Pool Library was without a doubt a very entertaining and enlightening read. It was also exciting to read a book that was very unashamed of its homoeroticism. Finally, a great book that titillates those of us who feel faint (or quite visceral) disgust at heterosexuals slobbering all over each other in literature--take that, straight America! The reason I rated this book a 4/5, though, is that I'm fairly unsure of whether or not every reader will approach the text with a critical eye towards is very prominent--but curiously latent--approach to race and class, which I discussed earlier. But you know what, I've decided to change my review. What a terrible reason to lower a book's rating! As of now, 5/5 for The Swimming-Pool Library!!(less)

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Apr 23, 2009

Milan/zzz rated it

· review of another edition

Shelves: glbt, awarded

I would lie if I tell I wasn't in shock while reading this book. This is first gay novel I've ever read and that's why I was very interested in it. Especially after so fabulous reviews which "The Swimming-Pool Library" has. Actually I"m not sure what kind of story I expected, maybe some story about homosexual relationship like in movie "Philadelphia" (with or without AIDS). "Philadelphia"? Ha, ha! comparing with this book even Almodovar with his movies is a li...more I would lie if I tell I wasn't in shock while reading this book. This is first gay novel I've ever read and that's why I was very interested in it. Especially after so fabulous reviews which "The Swimming-Pool Library" has. Actually I"m not sure what kind of story I expected, maybe some story about homosexual relationship like in movie "Philadelphia" (with or without AIDS). "Philadelphia"? Ha, ha! comparing with this book even Almodovar with his movies is a little kid. This is SO different!
Hollinghurst is writing without any barrier, his vocabulary is sharp and totally naked; he doesn't hesitate to use right word and right verb. This is book without euphemisms. I've read certain parts to my friend and he asked me "How can you read this pornography?" and indeed it is (first part) on the very final border of pornography and so-called "serious literature" so I guess it is truth that this is quite brave novel. Sometimes I had to close this book and take a deep breath before I continue reading.
So, first (dark) part of the novel was "difficult" for me with all those aggressive explicit sexual scenes and equal life style. But then later I've realized the point of such describing. It is fabulous (although sometimes hard for digest) picture of one way of living and it was necessary for bypassing mental abyss of main character.
Now, I'm not sure how much truth there is in this novel? I mean it's little hard to believe that this kind of (homo) sexual supermarket exist. Even in London. Then also it changed my perspective about gay relationships with such an enormous lasciviousness.

OK to end this journal, this book is definitely not for everyone but at the end I could say that I'm very glad that I've read it. It is one nice parallel between gay life in the past and the present time (which is more-less the same) but especially parallel between attitude of public society and government then and now and accepting existence of gay population.
This is good book; yes sometimes shocking but then that could often be a compliment :-)

(and by the way: this book has one of the most original cover arts I've ever seen!) (less)

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Mar 15, 2011

Dominic St Leger rated it

Shelves: modern

A semi-interesting story in parts, but ultimately it boils down to the vanity and shallow life of a gay man, William Beckwith, living in 1980s Britain. It's a book about not much happening to an unlikeable sex-crazed man. It is very unclear whether the author is extoling the virtues of this man's life or criticising them; to be honest it reads like he is doing neither and just reporting the tedious antics of this promiscuous man over one summer. The attempts to contrast this with the diary of th...more

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Mar 29, 2011

Sara rated it

Shelves: literary

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I loved Alan Hollinghurst's prose style, it is the perfect balance of showing off and slipping effortlessly past. Wandering around London of the 1983, with plenty of underground journeys, the protagonist Will Beckwith's life of wealthy idleness allows Hollinghurst the time to really indulge himself in evoking plummy characters and detailed locations, all caught with incisive descriptions. The Swimming-Pool Library creates a past world, pre-AIDs awareness, which is in many ways so unrecognisable ...moreI loved Alan Hollinghurst's prose style, it is the perfect balance of showing off and slipping effortlessly past. Wandering around London of the 1983, with plenty of underground journeys, the protagonist Will Beckwith's life of wealthy idleness allows Hollinghurst the time to really indulge himself in evoking plummy characters and detailed locations, all caught with incisive descriptions. The Swimming-Pool Library creates a past world, pre-AIDs awareness, which is in many ways so unrecognisable (partly due to Will's class) that it gained the interest of a historical novel, imagining a time long gone. The journals of the elderly aristocrat, Charles Nantwich, really establish the past of gay culture and give a fascinating background of Empire (and exploitation or at least exotification), persecution, and class issues. Unfortunately the homophobic attacks and the institutionalised persecution of no-heterosexual people is hardly a thing of the past and still seemed relevant and fresh, and terribly shocking when Hollinghurst presents it so starkly. The forthright descriptions of sex were also pretty stark and flirted with becoming taudry, yet fitted into the voice of the narrator very naturally and also into its interests. Not exactly for the faint of heart but enjoyably racy.
Admittedly, I would have liked more of Hollinghurst's interest to be directed into the lives of those characters who weren't part of the loftier classes. But then again, it was quite fun revelling in the wanton, unrestricted lives of those who don't worry much about consequences or responsibility. And that makes me wonder at Will's increasing sense of responsibility to the gay community. There are some fantastically degenerate characters and Will's young cousin Rupert (Roops, old chap) is a star. There may have been a few too many dashingly handsome men roaming around to be believable but that did make it rather more fun. Women are entirely banished from the book; Will's sister, Phillipa, makes it onto the phone but she may be the only one. This absence did not immediately strike me, which I think is partly because the frequent under-representation of women in fiction (although more noticeable on film). Which is to say that the stock places for women, the disposable and highly attractive girlfriends, is replaced in this novel with comparable young men. And the same questions are applicable to these men as to their female counterparts: why must they be so youthful, why always ravishingly good looking, why always available, why the exotification of the black characters? But I think Hollinghurst relies strongly on the reader asking these questions, even if he doesn't himself. But he regularly highlights the lack of insight that Will has and his lack of self awareness, leading the reader to challenge him perhaps?
The rambling plot of The Swimming-Pool Library lends itself to this kind of introspective analysis. Nonetheless, I was carefully paced and so well plotted that everything seemed to unfold naturally yet was exactingly placed and prepared for. Some threads are left tantalisingly hanging for bold lengths of time and Hollinghurst avoided the temptation to wrap them all up neatly, leaving the book feeling pleasantly organic.(less)

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Jul 21, 2009

Tessa rated it

Shelves: fictive

I was very sad when this ended. The narration is so well-done and delicate -- it wraps you (by you I mean me) up in the protagonist's head without you even knowing until something happens that makes you see how closely identified you've become. There's one scene in particular that does this to dazzling effect. It's around page 197 - I omit mentioning particulars not because it would spoil the plot or anything, but because if you're going to read it you deserve to come on it fresh. And for a ...more

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Jan 08, 2010

Shelley rated it

· review of another edition

Okay,I give up. I have tried and tried to push through this one and cannot do it. It seems like there are two separate books fighting with each other here. One is an interesting story and had some promise. The other is just sex. Just when the actual story gets going and I am absorbed in finding out more about Nantwich and what is going to happen with him and his memoirs, the author interrupts the story to throw in another repetitive and tedious sex scene that is identical to the one a few pa...more

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Feb 24, 2009

Scott rated it

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Shelves: thepinkroom, favorite

I totally loved this book and I wish I could write prose as Hollinghurst. His turn of phrase and excellent use of language is stellar.

The story is interestingly told through the eyes of a thirtyish gay man in the prime of his life simply lounging, working out, and having sexual encounters of the various kind. The plot dupes you into regarding the plot as non-existent and that the book will tell the typical tale of a lounger, but the author starts dropping hints to an underlying sec...more

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Aug 30, 2011

Sophie rated it

General Premise: In 1983, upper-class hedonist Will Beckwith is charged with writing the biography of Charles Nantwich, an elderly peer.
At the beginning I felt the narrator (Will) was a prick. Unfortunately my opinion hasn’t really changed. Most of the other characters, you learn more things about and they become fully fleshed out characters, but the narrator is about as deep as a puddle, which is quite wearing. He does admit this about himself, which is something. Also very sex-obsessed t...more

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Oct 25, 2009

Jessica marked it as aborted-efforts

Shelves: groups-of-people, hagging-out, love-and-other-indoor-sports, phys-ed

I need to stop doing this thing of, when I'm completely taken with a novel by a writer I've never read before, running out and instantly reading something else by that writer. It's just too much pressure, and I always wind up all pissed-off and disappointed. This has recently happened with Patrick Hamilton, Martin Amis, and now, Alan Hollinghurst – is there something about these Brits that they don’t make good second dates? When I read The Line of Beauty I loved it so much I was sick. Naturally ...moreI need to stop doing this thing of, when I'm completely taken with a novel by a writer I've never read before, running out and instantly reading something else by that writer. It's just too much pressure, and I always wind up all pissed-off and disappointed. This has recently happened with Patrick Hamilton, Martin Amis, and now, Alan Hollinghurst – is there something about these Brits that they don’t make good second dates? When I read The Line of Beauty I loved it so much I was sick. Naturally I ran out that week and bought The Swimming-Pool Library, but I think I wanted too much, and was keyed up too high…. maybe it's too much to ask an author's first novel to deliver in the face of those expectations.

All this is not to suggest that The Swimming-Pool Library is not gorgeously written or at all without merit. There were a lot of good things about this book, and his descriptions of the club where he swims were so lovely and evocative that I actually looked into joining the Y, thinking that getting into lap swimming might be the secret to surviving a miserable winter. I'd probably not follow his example to the point of staring hungrily at other gym members' genitals in the shower, but who knows... Anyway, I didn't wind up joining the YMCA, and I've also decided, on page 112, to bail on this book.

To be fair, I've been extraordinarily cranky and picky lately, and nothing I read has satisfied me at all. The issue I had here was with the odious narrator. It's not like I need to become besties with whoever is telling the story, but writing a novel about an unlikeable person is tough, and for me, in this case, it just didn't work. The book is about a rich, lazy, snob who doesn't have to go to work or do anything, who just sort of shambles aimlessly around London reading books, working out, and fucking everything that moves. Since this is more or less how I’d like to live my own life, but can’t, I resented the character, who also seemed like a spoiled egomaniac without redeeming qualities. I wasn't interested in his thoughts or what happened to him, which is usually a deal breaker for loving a novel.

Maybe if I'd stuck with this longer, I would've developed feelings beyond bored irritation. Hollinghurst certainly is a fantastic writer, but for me he was not fantastic enough in 1988 to overcome my desire to smack his main character in the side of the head. I spend enough time already dealing with dull, entitled people who bore me, and I'm not sure why I should subject myself to them in fiction. I suspect that Hollinghurst was aware of potential for this response from readers, as in The Line of Beauty the main character is a striver who doesn’t really belong in the elite world that he describes. Must class resentment interfere with readers’ enjoyment of fiction? No, of course not: a lot of my favorite books are about idle rich people. It does require extra authorial skills to effect that empathy, though, and for me, with this book, it just didn’t happen. Also, it wasn’t just that he’s rich, it’s that I really don’t like him.

Again, this book isn’t bad by any stretch of the imagination. However, I’m not enjoying it, so I’m putting it down.(less)

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Oct 22, 2011

Alec rated it

This is more or less how I want books to be written - this elegance of sentence that always manages to flow magnificently while delivering detail you don't need but definitely want. And it's not just descriptive - it can switch around and give you crudity, and witty dialogue, and vicious judgements, as well as just telling you what the scenery's like.

Brilliant narrative authority and sense of reality, and wonderful that it rejects an obvious coming of age structure. That rather than t...more

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Jul 07, 2011

Davie Bennett rated it

Saw this mentioned numerous times on a famous-gay-people-pick-their-favorite-books blog post a few weeks ago. I appreciated parts of Hollinghurst's "The Line of Beauty," but just couldn't find much to connect with in the main character's life of British aristocratic privilege. So I thought I would give this older work a try.

Turns out it is one of those books about people having sex in public restrooms. Are. You. Kidding. Me. ?. This is one of the best gay novels ever writte...more

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Mar 16, 2009

Michelle rated it

Recommends it for: Anyone who isn't shy about gay sex

Shelves: english-contemporary

The flow and tone of this novel is beautiful. It actually reminds me (absent the graphic gay sex) of Wilde's _The Picture of Dorian Grey_. Hollinghurst's style - especially when describing space and people is very like Wilde's I think. There are some delightful characters in this novel who don't hold a prominent place in the plot but who contribute nonetheless. Roops, Taha, etc., add some dimension to a sometimes shallow plot line.

The ending is not unexpected. Though Will is off...more

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Jun 27, 2011

Iva rated it

Issues of wealth, race, class and underground gay life in pre-AIDS London permeate this first person novel, a perfect pick for Pride Week (or any week, actually.) Hollinghurst's language is descriptive and transportive. There is a diary of an officer in Sudan in the 1920's juxtaposed with 80's London's club and gym scene. He does a heartbreaking prison scene. He creates a sort of Harriet the Spy 6-year old nephew. His characters are not to be forgotten. Hollinghurst creates scenes of heartbre...more

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Jun 01, 2011

Joy rated it

Well, I pretty much agree with Katie: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/108...

However, I'm only giving this 3 stars, because I am less generous. There were many bright spots of lovely writing, but the characters were just so annoying. If Will had learned anything by the end of the book, I would have liked him better. And yet knowing that he and his friends were about to be devastated by the arrival of HIV/AIDS made me a little more sympathetic somehow. Either he'll die (sad) or bec...more

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Jun 14, 2009

Josie rated it

Shelves: gay

wow, i am starting to understand references in one gay novel to another!!

brideshead revisited x giovanni's room???

written post-AIDS, but set pre-AIDS. this makes it quite different from Dancer from the Dance, though the opposite from what one would suppose--Dancer has this doomed feeling about it, while Library is a carefree romp.

Hollinghurst does this rather clever thing of having no woman ever appear in the book. There are women through the phone but clever strate...more

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Jan 02, 2012

Janie rated it

Shelves: janie-s-100-books-in-2012, janie-s-books-read-1001-challenge

The Swimming Pool library is set in 1983 London and focusses on a gay, highly sexed young rich (not particularly likeable) man who gets laid virtually on every page in full pornographic detail.

Honestly it was good to start with in its inevitable shocking sense but just got so tedius very quickly. Surely the main character could find other things to do other than sex with total strangers in porn cinemas, public toilets, etc. etc.

But there was a reasonable story behind th...more

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Dec 12, 2008

oxana rated it

· review of another edition

Recommends it for: people who like (slightly gay) history, drama and human relationships, but not in too much depth

Shelves: lgbt-interests, fiction, own

I would give this two-and-a-half stars, if possible. Let's settle with three, then, though maybe two would be more honest when it comes to my personal opinion.

The name of the book, actually, has very little if anything to do with the book itself. Also, if someone thinks this might be a tale of a romantic relationship between a younger and older man, will be sorely disappointed.

There is some romance, yes, and briefly described and lightly explicit sexual scenes between men...more

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Jun 12, 2010

Cathrine rated it

· review of another edition

Superbly written and sometimes very funny about the early 80's London gay world pre-AIDS. Some call the book racy and erotic, but it's all written in very tasty and subdued way.

The young gay aristocrat William Beckwith devotes his existence to the pursuit of pleasure, enjoying numerous casual affairs with a variety of men. By chance one day he saves the life of the elderly Lord Nantwich. A friendship begin when Lord Nantwhich wants William to write his biography. By reading Lord Nant...more

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Mar 15, 2010

Sonja Reid rated it

Shelves: novels

A meandering and somewhat pointless novel, though that may have simply been capturing the leisurely life of the unemployed and wealthy protagonist, William Beckwith. I enjoyed it, as Hollinghurst has a pretty sly and witty way of describing people, but I'd like to read another of his novels to see this in a better setting. One sees gay life in England from WWI to the 80s, and the evolution of the tenuous negotiation of this subculture with the culture at large. This is definitely the cruisiest n...more

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Aug 04, 2011

Kathy Hiester rated it

God offers Lucifer a second chance if he can live one month as a human. Lucifer accepts the offer so God takes Declan Gunn who is depressed London novelist contemplating suicide puts his soul on hold for a month and let’s Lucifer take power. This is a side-splittingly entertaining novel as Lucifer throws himself into the sex. The imagery of Lucifer's reactions to the different smells as he walks through London is dramatic. I will say that Duncan’s writing is very intense and I had really think o...more

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About Alan Hollinghurst

Alan Hollinghurst is an English novelist, and winner of the 2004 Booker Prize for The Line of Beauty.

He read English at Magdalen College, Oxford graduating in 1975; and subsequently took the further degree of Master of Literature (1979). While at Oxford he shared a house with Andrew Motion, and was awarded the Newdigate Prize for poetry in 1974, the year before Motion.

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“Now he had chanced on one of he standard hard-on sessions of the shower, as on both sides of him and across the room three queens sported horizontal members which they turned around from time to time to conceal or display, barely exchanging looks as they resolved. The old men took no interest in this activity, knowing perhaps from long experience that it rarely meant anything or led anywhere, was a brief and helpless surrender to the forcing-house of the shower. In a few seconds the hard-on might pass from one end of the room to the other with the foolish perfection of a Busby Berkeley routine.” — 2 people liked it

“And going into the showers I saw a suntanned young lad in pale blue trunks that I rather liked the look of.” — 1 person liked it

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