616 reviews for:

Onze avonden

Alan Hollinghurst

3.95 AVERAGE

rachlincs's review against another edition

4.5

challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

dominic's review against another edition

3.0

reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

reimaginelit's review against another edition

5.0

hopeful lighthearted 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: Yes

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Beautiful, reflective and so very hopeful. 

rosa_mariposa's review against another edition

4.75

emotional hopeful reflective sad 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: Yes

davethescot's review against another edition

5.0

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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

lucyblack's review against another edition

1.5

reflective slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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Our Evenings is a novel made of memoir style vignettes, evenings in David’s life age 14-old age. Most of the evenings are long and boring. Less novel and more rambling nostalgia about theatre and acquaintances, lots of standing around talking. There are some stand out scenes towards the beginning, an interesting country house and lusty beach holiday but as the character gets older and duller so does the book. The commentary about race and class in England was interestingly done, David’s relationship with his mother and her girlfriend was sweet and original but overall Our Evenings was indulgent and read like it needed good editing. 

vicki22's review against another edition

4.5

emotional funny informative sad 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: Yes

sportula's review against another edition

5.0

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective relaxing sad 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: No

rhymeswithplume's review against another edition

4.25

adventurous emotional funny reflective sad 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

casskrug's review against another edition

3.0

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our evenings is a character study centering around our narrator, dave win, a gay man of burmese descent living in traditionally straight, white english society. we follow him throughout his life and his career as an actor, examining his relationship with his mother, multiple love interests, and an old classmate who becomes a conservative politician and keeps popping up in dave’s life. the novel is very slow paced and spans an incredible amount of time, showing how british culture evolved from the 1960s to present day. i thought the longing and displacement david felt because of his identity was palpable and enjoyed reading about his involvement in experimental theater. without giving anything away, i also thought the character of his mother was really captivating as a kind of foil to david’s identity. 

i can’t tell if spreading this out over almost the entire month of november worked for or against my experience with the book - clocking in at almost 500 pages, i wanted to chip away at it each day so that i could make time for other books as well. i don’t think the book needed to be as long as it is. the prose was really beautiful but i was having a hard time with some unclear time jumps and keeping straight the introductions of new characters. i will say the ending really got me, i found it to be quite unexpected and a culturally relevant way to wrap things up. overall i just didn’t feel as drawn into the story as i’d like to be with such a long novel. 

thank you to random house for sending me a copy!