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mariana_cscs's review
challenging
dark
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
adt's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
lifesaverscandyofficial's review against another edition
he's so strange... great sentences tho
kludwig's review against another edition
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
joel_buck's review against another edition
3.0
This one gave me a bit of whiplash. Started great. The middle section was, honestly, kind of unengaging, and then the last 80 pages really came through. As with Dancer From The Dance, which I read earlier this year, it's interesting to read about the highs and lows of uninhibited gay goings-on without the specter of AIDS looming. I think there's a lot to suss out in here about the interplay of generations—what's owed to our predecessors, how we assume responsibility of the world they've cultivated/earned for us and of ourselves within it. Hollinghurst writes this style so effortlessly it's hard to know how just how affected he's being (maybe that's a condescending remark? or at least a presumptuous one). It felt somehow both more ebullient and denser than The Line Of Beauty—less of a page turner than that one, though the way the energy and playfulness subsides as Will's rose colored glasses are taken from him is quite well done. This was published in 1988, so I suppose I thought it was meaningful in some small way that this was the book I was reading on my birthday.
lautreamont's review against another edition
weird vibes. Will go back to it some other time with more context