Alarra's review
The Line of Beauty
by Alan Hollinghurst
Alarra's review
The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst
Alarra's review
rating:
bookshelves:
contemporaryfiction,
gblt
I really liked this. I found it more coherent as a whole for a Hollinghurst novel; it has a very wide scope of subjects - Thatcherism, materialism, class, homosexuality, aesthetism, money...and that's just for starters - and it made me work for understanding as I read, while being an entirely absorbing book to read because he just about manages to tie it all in at the end without a pat resolution. It's a period novel about Britain in the 80s, but even with my limited understanding of the tensions in that place and era, I could get the subtle, cunning critique of the people in the book from within. The characters aren't meant to be likeable, we get them warts and all, and yet they're not monsters, we can see why Nick (the main character) is so attached to their aura of money and privilege and supposed beauty while seeing at the same time that it is his main fault and downfall to want this kind of "beauty" in his life. Another thing I liked was that it straddled the line of bei...more
