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<a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/139087.The_Line_of_Beauty?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="The Line of Beauty" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1172099924m/139087.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/139087.The_Line_of_Beauty?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">The Line of Beauty</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15543.Alan_Hollinghurst">Alan Hollinghurst</a><br/><br/>
  <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/470205?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a>
  rating: 4 of 5 stars<br/>It's London in the 1980s and Nick Guest is staying with a Tory parliamentarian, whose son was a friend from university.  Lord Fedden is a seemingly unblemished figure, a well-heeled, well-connected Londonite who Nick seeks to impress but more importantly, not to offend.  At the same time, Nick, who has put behind the fantasies of his time at Cambridge for the realities of London, finally feels free to live his sexuality, first by pursuing an exhilerating relationship with an energetic, experienced black man named Leo, then, by attracting the surreptitious attentions of Wani Ouradi, attractive playboy, closeted son of wealth.  The latter liason represents a veritable fantasy world for Nick, one where he (fleetingly) lives the life of a character out of James, his graduate studies subject.  What unfolds is an engulfing and eventually devastating story of being gay in the the brat pack/Wall Street/Reagan-Thatcher version of 1980s, where people sneak into the bathroom to blow coke and consummate a quick, vaguely-remembered tryst and, when, AIDS was just emerging, with all of the stigma a disease like that would take on in those times (or any point in modernity, perhaps).  I could not put this one down.  
  <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/8476?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>

Elaine's review
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It's London in the 1980s and Nick Guest is staying with a Tory parliamentarian, whose son was a friend from university. Lord Fedden is a seemingly unblemished figure, a well-heeled, well-connected Londonite who Nick seeks to impress but more importantly, not to offend. At the same time, Nick, who has put behind the fantasies of his time at Cambridge for the realities of London, finally feels free to live his sexuality, first by pursuing an exhilerating relationship with an energetic, experienced black man named Leo, then, by attracting the surreptitious attentions of Wani Ouradi, attractive playboy, closeted son of wealth. The latter liason represents a veritable fantasy world for Nick, one where he (fleetingly) lives the life of a character out of James, his graduate studies subject. What unfolds is an engulfing and eventually devastating story of being gay in the the brat pack/Wall Street/Reagan-Thatcher version of 1980s, where people sneak into the bathroom to blow coke and cons...more

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