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The Swimming-Pool Library

3.8 of 5 stars 3.80 · rating details · 2,819 ratings · 163 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 & Q...more

Hardcover, 288 pages

Published August 12th 1988 by Random House (first published 1988)

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Jun 22, 2011 mark monday rated it 1 of 5 stars · 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 novels between these two categories...more

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Dec 11, 2008 Eric rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 and the seni...more

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Sep 14, 2008 Gary Lee rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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

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May 06, 2012 Kirstine rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 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 not very general.
That's what this book is. It's very general.

And I liked it, I liked the others better, but I liked this too. It has been highly praised as being one of the best British books about gay life, and, not knowing a hell of a lot about gay life or the gay community (or British fiction), I feel this is a part of the book I can't quite judge. But for someone outside of this community and - I feel it's safe to say - that type of life (I don't have that much sex or that much money (and I'm not as sociable)), it was a great look into what goes on in a world I don't frequent; how things work and the different dynamics. There was a great contrast between the main character, Will, and his best friend, James. Both showed some of the freedoms and limitations of being gay and being open about it. In many respects gay life is pretty much the same as the lives of everyone else (oh gosh, who knew? - actually, a lot of people might not). They have the same worries, the same desires, the same dreams. But there's also an extra layer of worry and apprehension, a layer that the different characters use different means to break through. And this is the thing I perhaps had the most questions about, because - I say this with the fear of sounding ridiculous - how do you know, as a gay person, if someone else is also gay? It makes sense how it happens in places that are mostly occupied by gay people. But I mean, Will keeps picking up guys in random places, and how did he know they wanted what he wanted and that he wouldn't get rejected or even ridiculed? It took a while for this to get addressed in the book, and it was driving me crazy, but in the end you sort of understand it, not because it is clearly stated, but because you get to watch Will handle it. I liked that, in the end it gave a much better understanding.

So why only 3 stars? First of all, there isn't actually a swimming pool library in this book (the title being the reason I picked it up in the first place). Had there been, this probably would have automatically been 4 stars.
Secondly, I couldn't quite relate to Will. We're very different in character and personality, and that also lessens my enjoyment of a book. He rarely did things I downright disagreed with, but I didn't feel strongly connected to him either. I guess there were things I didn't understand and didn't shared with him.

The one thing that put me off the most though, is how Will was just 'suddenly' in love with Phil. Seriously? I don't get it. I never, not once, got the impression that he was in love with him, or that Phil loved him back. Not once. And that's just... not good, because it makes part of the book unbelievable, and unreal. The same with Will's relationship with Arthur. That is a messed up kind of love, sorry to say. And I have no doubt Alan Hollinghurst tried to make this story something real, something that depicted real life to some degree, and it was just slightly ruined by how I simply didn't believe Will had ever loved anyone other than James.
Maybe he hasn't, maybe that was the point, but it still fell very flat to me. There were a few scenes similar to that of Call Me by Your Name, but while it was believable and heartwrenching and stunning in that book, it was devoid of any real attachment in this one. Both by me, as a reader, but also it felt, by the characters in the book.

Other than that, it was a fairly enjoyable read, and it definitely expanded and broadened my view on some things, but I doubt I'll pick it up again, even if I might benefit from it, as I suspect there were a few things that went over my heard (perhaps because I simply lack the knowledge to properly comprehend them). That's for another time. (less)

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Mar 28, 2012 Shovelmonkey1 rated it 3 of 5 stars · 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. 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

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Jun 05, 2012 Vanessa Wu rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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

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May 09, 2012 Sarah Dawson rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Mar 15, 2012 Barndoor rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: in-the-charity-box

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

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Jun 19, 2011 Everett Darling rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 1 of 5 stars · 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 breeds of...more

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Jun 04, 2010 Sophie rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

-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

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Nov 03, 2009 Colin Hogan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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

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Jun 08, 2009 Francisco rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 highly sexua...more 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 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 3 of 5 stars · 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 little kid. This is SO different!
Holl...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 rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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...more 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 (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 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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 book...more

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Jul 30, 2012 David Ireland rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: light-orange-band

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

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Feb 26, 2012 Fabian rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

“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

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Feb 24, 2009 Scott rated it 5 of 5 stars

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 secret.

I love Wil...more

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Jul 25, 2012 Ametista rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: eros

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

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Aug 30, 2011 Sophie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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

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Oct 25, 2009 Jessica marked it as aborted-efforts · review of another edition

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...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 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 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed

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

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Jan 07, 2013 Brett rated it 4 of 5 stars

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

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Jul 07, 2011 Davie Bennett rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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

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Mar 17, 2012 Katie Grainger rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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

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Mar 16, 2009 Michelle rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition 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 offered a lesson in...more

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Jun 27, 2011 Iva rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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

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Jun 01, 2011 Joy rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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

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Goodreads Librari...: ISBN 9780099268130	4	39	Nov 24, 2012 06:22pm

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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.

In the late 1970s he became a...more

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Quotes from The Swimming-Pool Library

“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.” — 3 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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