From the Bookshelf of Constant Reader…

The Stranger's Child

Alan Hollinghurst

Start date: April 15, 2012

Finish date: May 1, 2012

Discussion: Reading List

Discussion leader: Al

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Reading List

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What Members Thought

Oct 25, 2011 Laura rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, glbt, read-2013, family-saga, mtbr-challenge-2013, british-literature, hf-world-war-i

This is my first book by this author and I really liked it.

This is a love triangle story between George Sawle, Cecil Valance and George's sister, Daphne. While visiting George's family, he falls in love with Cecil and Daphne as well.

During this visit, Cecil writes a poem Two Acres which will become a touchstone for a generation.

The book is composed by 5 sections and each set at a different period, from 1913 until 2008.

Some reviewers make allusion to The Children's Book by A.S. Byatt. Another goo ...more

8 likes · Like · see review

Mar 05, 2012 Pang rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: historical-fiction, why-did-i-bother, tob, tob2012

I just don't get this book. The theme of the book is supposed to be tied to Alfred Lord Tennyson’s poem “In Memoriam A.H.H.”:

Till from the garden and the wild
A fresh association blow,
And year by year the landscape grow
Familiar to the stranger’s child.

I just can't wrap my mind around who's "the stranger's child." Is it the homosexual culture in England throughout the time of the book? Is that it?

Regardless, the book was boring. The first chapter was fine. I felt like I had something to look forw ...more

1 like · Like · see review

Jan 10, 2012 Angie rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction

Cecil Valance was a flirtatious minor British poet who enjoyed a brief stint of popularity after his premature death in World War I when he is quoted by Churchill. His presence, and absence, looms large in the lives of both those he left behind and in later generations with more tangential connections to him. There are five main sections to the story, each ending several years, or even decades after the previous section, and each taking a different perspective and connection to Cecil. Unfortunat ...more

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