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pepeleb's review
challenging
emotional
hopeful
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
afoof's review
4.0
3.5 beautiful writing, a bit hard to follow, skipped over small bits I found too obtuse and full of characters I didn't want to know but fascinating story and a look at scandal over time, especially gay ones and how much more acceptable it is to be LGBTQ now.
retaliashun's review
3.0
I'm unsure what I think. I've never read Hollinghurst before and I am not sure what this novel was suppose to be inherently about. An artistic gay son of a decorated war hero who is arrested for a gay sex scandal. While I think it has potential, it just seems to move along with no purpose. Even the ending feels like it ends not because there is some resolved conflict between father and son (there isn't) but moreso that the author seemed to finally just tire of writing.
jacehan's review against another edition
2.0
I’m settling on 3, but it was wildly inconsistent and muddled, with times in the middle where I almost set it down. The first section is the strongest and most consistently voiced, written as it is with a single narrator, whereas the rest of the book spends most of its time with a single main character, but not consistently, nor does it commit to being omniscient.
The idea of the “Sparsholt affair” itself both referring to many different events, all of which occur off-page, is an interesting premise, but it bleeds over into many scenes where the interesting part happens off page and we are just left with the writing around it, alluding to the events, which is an exercise in frustration.
The idea of the “Sparsholt affair” itself both referring to many different events, all of which occur off-page, is an interesting premise, but it bleeds over into many scenes where the interesting part happens off page and we are just left with the writing around it, alluding to the events, which is an exercise in frustration.
cjhcjh's review
3.0
Hard to rate—well written, good story, but it took me forever to read because I just lost interest after a while and kind of poked through it. I adored The Line Of Beauty but this one was just ok for me.
cojack's review
4.0
What an interesting book. It doesn't have much in the way of plot, but there's plenty of story around growing up gay in England in different generations. Hollinghurst also delves into the way many artists/misfits need to create their own communities and family-type structures. Father-child relationships feature strongly. This is a hard book to summarize. Hollinghurst writes beautifully. I tried to skim parts of this to get it read in time for book club, but I was too drawn in by his language to read quickly. The book has several passages that seem pointless overall, which is the main reason I knocked my rating down a star. Oh, and the jumps in time were jarring, especially in terms of keeping track of characters. It always took me 20 pages or so to get into each new section. Also, I think it’s odd to cover gay lives from 1940 to present without even mentioning AIDS. Maybe it was too big of a topic to touch on, but it was a glaring omission to me. Overall, it could have been tighter and have had a little more in the way of plot threads, but this was a great read. I have to dig into his previous works.
adriancurcher's review against another edition
4.0
A book really worth savouring. Stylish and gorgeously written.
pshipper's review against another edition
4.0
Great read. I like an author who can successfully interest me in the lives and fates of characters that are not sympathetic; who creates ambiguity that still manages to engage. There are fascinating people and places in this book. I didn't like all of them and I didn't understand all of their motivations, but I wanted to follow them through the arc of the book.
Hollinghurst also deftly portrays important plot points in a way that people in that time or at their age in life might have understood them. The historical parts of this work felt genuine, regardless of how much of the central characters' roles in history were fictional.
Hollinghurst also deftly portrays important plot points in a way that people in that time or at their age in life might have understood them. The historical parts of this work felt genuine, regardless of how much of the central characters' roles in history were fictional.
hislibraianshiprecommends's review against another edition
Alan Hollinghurst’s “The Sparsholt Affair” was pretty good—epic multi-generational story of loosening sexual mores in pre-War through modern England. Writing is beautiful, some of the best descriptive fiction I’ve ever read.