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 novels between these two categories More...

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 and the seni More...

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? check!
Cruisy gym locker room? chec More...

In the past whenever I read or heard the words "gay fiction" this is the type of book I imagined it referred to. Up until now I hadn't actually read a book I thought fitted the "gay fiction" label, because it's more than just having gay characters in it, isn't it? I think it is. And that's what this book does. This book is very much about what it's like being gay, whereas other books on my "gay fiction" shelf have been more about love and sharing a connection with someone, it was specific, and n More...

This book is tricksily misleading on a number of fronts. It has been described as deeply thrilling and darkly erotic. I think I might have missed something then.... at first appearance it's a breezy but self obsessed commentary by flirtatious man about town, William Beckwith; young, moneyed, unscrupulous, charming and gay. The narrative is archly upper class with frequent references to private mens clubs such as the Corinthian and the Athenaeum. The characters are foppish and callow, self servin More...

You never stop learning a language, which is why I buy two unabridged English novels from Audible every month and listen to them with as much concentration as I can muster. Style is very important. I don't like to listen to bad style. So I choose very carefully what I listen to. Those books become like voices in my head. I absorb every cadence. I internalise, verbalise and repeat.

Finally I have found time for Alan Hollinghurst. He's been on my list for a long time because everybody in the litera More...

Well written.

That is all I can positively say about this book. I was given a signed copy of The Line of Beauty and was told that I needed to read The Swimming Pool Library first. So I bought it, started reading it and then put it down after the second chapter and it has stayed on my shelf for five years collecting dust. Father Christmas was jolly enough to fetch me a kindle for Christmas and so I made The Swimming Pool Library my second book to read. After all I thought I give it another chance. More...

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...

-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 some stud may allow a mock More...

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 between the narrator, his l 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!
Holl More...

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...

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 book More...

Great writing but it felt a bit half-baked at times. Was he trying to touch every base in post-Wilde gay fiction? Does this explain why the story was a little odd at times?

The last chapters brought us to a rather strange place: a "secret" interesting enough to shock a very selfish and generally disinterested young man but not damaging enough for anyone to work very hard to keep and, crucially, not so interesting that any of the young man's friends or family had sought to tell him. That's a funny More...

“The Swimming Pool Library” Alan Hollinghurst. 2/26/12

A wonderful romp around London-town, arguably the gayest city in all of Europe. The novel is exquisite, very smartly titled (Swimming-pool implies the superficial aspect of the gay scene, Library implies all that is intelligent and witty: the book is a merger of these both): at once overly-sensual and incredibly literary.

“The Line of Beauty” seems to be the culmination of Hollinghurst’s steamy/cranial poetics… this then is barely but a steppi More...

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 secret.

I love Wil More...

E come la prima volta che lo lessi, è stato come essere al Corry, ad ammirare corpi atletici nuotare nell'acqua cristallina della piscina, o nelle docce, fra occhiate cariche di significati...

"Sogno ancora, più o meno una volta al mese, quello spogliatoio, il suo pavimento e le sue panche di assicelle. Nel nostro gergo regressivo lo chiamavamo la Biblioteca della piscina e poi la Biblioteca tout-court, una definizione adatta alla doppia vita che conducevamo. <> annunciavo, come uno studios More...

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 to the More...

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 More...

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 trying to s More...

This is the second Alan Hollinghurst I've now read - the first was "The Stranger's Child" which I thoroughly enjoyed. I've come to realise that reading Alan Hollinghurst is like wading through treacle; you cannot read him fast - his prose slows you down with each sentence. And yet, curiously, this "treacle" creates the most complete and vivid images for the reader - his writing beautifully evokes character and setting, and both times I have come away from his books feeling like I've been totally More...

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 written? No, no, no. The pro More...

The Swimming Pool Library is a novel about being gay in a pre AIDS 1980's. The young protagonist is Will Beckwith, an aristocrat who is asked by Lord Charles Nantwich to write a biography from his memoirs. The book follows Will as he begins this task but in truth Charles is hiding something from him which is revealed by the end of the novel.

This novel is a little thin on plot at times but the narrator is in many ways addictive to read about. His relationship with Arthur is particularly compelli More...

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 offered a lesson in More...

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 heartbreak More...

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

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 become a slightly More...