Alan Hollinghurst is one of the authors who featured in my dissertation, so I’ve been trying to work my way through all his novels. The Line of Beauty was the text in my second chapter, then I read The Stranger’s Child and The Swimming-Pool Library in summer 2012. I read The Folding Star last year for CBR6, and was not a super huge fan of it. The Spell is the last of Hollinghurst’s books I hadn’t read, so I decided to “collect” another author.
You could say that The Spell sort of takes a page out of Jane Austen’s book. If Jane Austen were a gay man in an era of sexual possibility and trying to juggle three love affairs at one time. You have four major characters, all of whom connect in interesting ways: there’s Robin, a late-40s architect who still has a handsome body; Justin, a 30-something wannabe actor who is in a long-term relationship with Robin and making a home with him in the countryside; Alex, Justin’s ex-boyfriend still pining after Justin but agreeing to be a house guest in the country for a few weeks; and then there’s Danny, Robin’s charismatic but wildly unpredictable son, who captures the fancy of all the men around him.
It’s quite intriguing and makes an interesting commentary on the drug culture and materialism that surrounded gay Britain in the 1970s and 1980s. While I’d still classify The Line of Beauty and The Stranger’s Child as my favorites, I still think this novel is worth a read–the party scene is quite a hoot, in its own right.
Bonnie, I feel like I missed something with The Line of Beauty. I gave it a go earlier this year, and DNFed it at about the 75 page mark. I just couldn’t get excited about the prose, and the story seemed to be languishing with little forward momentum. Did you review it at some point? I so rarely DNF a book that its really bothering me.
I personally believe the book picks up speed after about the 100-page mark, but it’s a slow burn (sort of like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy), and the crisis is subtle, rather than explosive. If you’re thinking about it as a critique of Margaret Thatcher and the consumerist hypocrisy surrounding right-wing ideas of “individualism,” it’s kind of a gut punch, especially with the denouement at the end. I did review it last year, and I’ve included the link for your perusal: http://cbr.bgwdesigns.com/2014/01/the-many-lines-of-beauty/ . If you decide to give it a go again, let me know! I *love* talking about that book, and I’m making my sister read it (since she’s read most of the books for my dissertation, anyway).
But truly, there is NO SHAME in abandoning a book. I tried to read and abandoned Swamplandia!, The Help, and Tess of the D’Urbervilles (seriously, I chucked it across the room and have not returned to it in like 13 years). If you just don’t feel it, then there’s no harm in that.
I have refused to even pick up Swamplandia! so that’s fair enough. I think that Cannonball has made me a much more informed chooser of books that I run into less things that I just can’t be bothered with. Normally I am all about a slow burn/character study type book. Maybe I’ll try it again in the fall. Or maybe I’ll talk Ale into getting the miniseries for me from Netflix since its apparently not on streaming only DVDs. (My county library system doesn’t appear to have it on DVD.)
Okay, CBR has now eaten my comment on the mini-series TWICE, so I am giving up, but do rent it if you can. It’s absolutely fantastic. A very young Hayley Atwell is mesmerizing.