The Swimming-Pool Library (Vintage Blue)

Editorial Reviews. From Publishers Weekly. On entering a London public lavatory in blithe pursuit of quick, anonymous sex, beautiful and roguish young.
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He has… More about Alan Hollinghurst. Historical Fiction Literary Fiction Category: Historical Fiction Literary Fiction. Also in Vintage International.


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When Hannah meets the dashing Andrew on the ice rink near her office, he tries to convince her to get back on the ice. Share your thoughts with other customers. Write a customer review. Read reviews that mention gay hollinghurst sex beckwith young london pool swimming lord alan sexual fiction novels nantwich main biography men pre-aids william write. There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later. In Alan Hollinghurst's debut novel, The Swimming-Pool Library, Will, a promiscuous, self-absorbed layabout, finds his upper-class world both shaken and stirred after he saves the life of an elderly gay aristocrat in a public lavatory.

Both grateful, and believing his life story to be one worthy of a written biography, Lord Nantwich asks that Will assume authorship of his project. Refusing to make a commitment, Will agrees to research Nantwich's life through the man's diaries and many years worth of letters, and then come to a decison. As the year old's friendship with the elder man develops, Will finds it difficult to concentrate much on research; he's much too busy cruising the showers at the clubby gym where he swims, partying with best and only?

Meanwhile, Will's teenage black boyfriend, Arthur, a recent refugee from the drug-related violence of public housing, has disappeared without a trace so that's one more thing occupying Will's mind, if not his time. Set in the pre-AIDS London of the early 80's, The Swimming-Pool Library vividly depicts the free-spirited camaraderie of openly gay men particularly the relationship between Lord Nantwich and Will while examining issues pertaining to class, racism, police entrapment and homophobia, all presented with an edgy urgency that pulls the reader further into the tale Alan Hollinghurst so skillfully weaves.

9780099268130 - The Swimming-pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst

There is a lot of often explicit sex going on in The Swimming-Pool Library but the book never feels exploitative or smutty; indeed, it is sins of the distant past that cause the novel's protagonists to question their place in the world, and to re-examine themselves and their privileged lifestyles.

I first read Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty several years ago and immediately found myself admiring the quality of his writing and storytelling.


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My familiarity with the world portrayed in both novels, and of the wonderful characters inhabiting this world only enhances my appreciation for his work: I highly recommend The Swimming-Pool Library as a precursor to The Line of Beauty, both of which are among my favorite works of modern fiction. One person found this helpful 2 people found this helpful. I was going to begin by saying that I almost wish this were not a "gay novel," but what I really wish is that so many people would stop referring to it as such.

How many reviewers, for example, would start out by referring to, say, Sense and Sensibility as a "heterosexual novel"? Of course Hollinghurst's novel couldn't be what it is without homosexuality, but then you could say the same about the heterosexuality of many "straight" novels. The important point is that it's a very very good novel. Nor is it enough to say that it is well-written.

It is also beautifully composed, something that goes much deeper and is much more complex than mere "good" writing.

The Swimming-Pool Library - Wikipedia

For several chapters, the book may seem episodic and rather pointless, but then, almost subconsciously, the reader starts to sense the heave of a theme, the faint strain of a story, like the weaving of beautiful music. And then you're caught and swept along. I won't belabor plot details and character analyses.

There have been plenty of other reviews covering those points. What struck me was that after it was all over, it wasn't all over. I've been haunted for days by possibilities of interpretation that only re-reading might help to clear up. Just how trustworthy was our narrator, after all?

Just how "nice" was Lord Nantwich, after all? How much of what happened to Will was contrived far in advance? Questions about the ultimate meanings of certain events and about the real emotional impact of events last long after the final page. It's a living, pulsing piece of music.

It's a wonderful work of art. This is the first "gay genre" book I've read. I bought it because the author just won the Booker Prize. Alan Hollinghurst writes beautifully. His prose has a certain limpid clarity accomplished the very best English authors. Its form is that of a narrative memoir, and contains within it, in part, diary entries by one of the main characters.

In all, The Swimming Pool Library has more of the overall "feel" of a diary than a work of fiction. Hollinghurst's attention to detail is superb; his descriptions of the physical aspects of people, landscapes, and architecture are superb, and his evocation on London night life has a real feeling of authenticity. Strange to say, for a gay man Hollinghurst seems to take a surprisingly dispassionate approach to romance in this book.

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The author is quite spare in entering into the psychology of his characters in toto, which, in a sense, is appropriate, since the human heart -both our own and others'- remains, for the most part, a delicious and maddening mystery. In the end, The Swimming Pool Library just seems to peter out, and whatever insight into his characters Hollinghurst had earlier in the book seems to get a little lost.

Also, for me, the total lack of female characters made The Swimming Pool Library feel more than a bit claustrophobia-inducing. However, the very best fiction leaves one with a deeper appreciation of the changes and chances of one's own life, and the lives of other people. Hollinghurst beautifully achieves this for the greater part of this book, but loses it at the very end. Unless, of course, there is a "to be continued Kindle Edition Verified Purchase.

I am late to Hollinghurst but I love discovering a new comrade. This book is charming, funny, sexy as they come, emotionally complex, and ultimately as satisfying as any "gay book" I have read in recent history. Can't wait to start the next one. See all 71 reviews. Most recent customer reviews. Published 2 months ago. Published 3 months ago. Published 4 months ago. Published 6 months ago. Published 8 months ago.

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