615 reviews for:

Onze avonden

Alan Hollinghurst

3.95 AVERAGE

emotional reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
challenging reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Hollinghurst at his best.
tobsiz's profile picture

tobsiz's review against another edition

DID NOT FINISH: 42%

Reading this book felt like a chore. The pacing is way too slow for me, somehow most of the plot felt irrelevant or insignificant
emotional reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
emotional reflective medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
emotional reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

The narrator of the audiobook is fantastic. The ending was difficult. 
emotional reflective sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

The audiobook is brilliantly narrated and I only managed to finish the book because of this. I started the print version and nearly despaired at about the 40% mark at seeing how many more hours I would still have to invest to finish it. 

There are some beautiful moments, but I'm afraid it failed to hold my attention a lot of the time. 

The racism towards the end hit hard as that time (2020) made the streets unpleasant for Far East Asians (then later South Asians) and it was harrowing to see the UK descending to such base levels. 
challenging emotional reflective slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No