false <![CDATA[The Swimming-Pool Library]]> 30106 12 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), it focuses on the friendship of two men: William Beckwith, a young gay aristocrat who leads a life of privilege and promiscuity, and the elderly Lord Nantwich, an old Africa hand, searching for someone to write his biography and inherit his traditions. 2776591 1988 The Swimming-Pool Library total:468|5:112|4:166|3:131|2:45|1:14| 468 1721 735 59 4 3 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Sep 25 09:17:03 -0700 2008 Thu Dec 11 15:11:19 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 3 false false Sun Mar 16 02:16:30 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 14 01:19:58 -0700 2008 While it wasn't a horrible novel, overall it was a bit to...more...]]> 5 0 false false Mon Aug 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Nov 03 19:26:05 -0800 2009 Tue Nov 03 19:33:13 -0800 2009 ...more...]]> 5 1 false true Fri May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 08 15:47:15 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 08 22:16:53 -0700 2009
From my perspective, very recently influenced b...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Sep 15 00:00:00 -0700 2005 Thu Apr 23 15:18:12 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 23 15:19:48 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jul 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 15 13:50:57 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 21 08:09:24 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Fri Feb 13 06:45:53 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 24 18:02:44 -0800 2009
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 encounte...more...]]> 0 4 false false Mon Oct 12 19:01:18 -0700 2009 Sun Oct 25 09:29:43 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Mar 16 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 15 08:08:53 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 16 18:15:16 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 true false Thu Aug 27 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Aug 12 12:41:50 -0700 2009 Fri Sep 18 10:29:35 -0700 2009 Often one is disappointed when reading an author's earlier works. Not so with Alan Hollinghurst, best known for the Man Booker Prize winner The Line of Beauty in 2004.


In his debut novel The Swimming-Pool Library Hollinghurst shows mastery of elegant descriptive language in a story set about g...

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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...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Dec 11 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Oct 30 09:54:42 -0700 2008 Fri Dec 12 11:09:43 -0800 2008 1
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 t...more...]]> 2 0 false false Sat Apr 04 23:35:51 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 14 06:27:32 -0700 2009 1 (apparently)
I can't say that it was bad, but it also wasn't in any way remarkable. In fact, I've mostly forgotten what it was about, except for that weird f...more...]]> 2 0 false false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Tue Jun 03 09:18:58 -0700 2008 Fri Jun 06 10:11:37 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Tue Dec 04 17:47:54 -0800 2007 Mon Dec 17 16:24:54 -0800 2007
The narrator is incredibly shallow and unable to think about much of anything outside himself. He is also sexually ...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 1989 Mon Jul 30 11:57:56 -0700 2007 Thu Oct 23 23:24:25 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Apr 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Thu Jun 07 07:33:49 -0700 2007 Thu Jun 07 07:34:26 -0700 2007 The Line Of Beauty a couple of years ago and I remember thinking that he was an excellent writer. But The Swimming Pool Library blew me away in a way that The Line Of Beauty did not. Somehow among contemporary authors there seems to be...more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Apr 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Mar 23 10:03:42 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 09 19:04:58 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Dec 30 08:59:54 -0800 2008 Tue Dec 30 09:15:44 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Jan 14 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 10 23:45:59 -0800 2009 Wed Jan 14 23:32:19 -0800 2009 more...]]>