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A review by millennial_dandy
The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst
3.0
Perhaps the most pertinant thing to say about 'The Swimming Pool Library' is that it is an incredibly white story. Self-consciously so*, but in such a way that it is this almost more than anything else. The other three relevant lenses this story are told through are: queer, then upper-class, and then British.
I say this because these lenses advise so much of the reading experience, and the ways in which they overlap are likely to be the difference between someone liking this book or not.
When I say this is primarily a white story this is not only due to the fact that much time is spent describing Black and brown bodies in ways that made me cringe, though this is certainly true. The thing that made this a white (in a derogatory sense) story was the complete lack of understanding on Hollinghurst's side of what to do with his own observations in terms of commentary.
*There is a degree of self-awareness in protagonist Will's objectification and fetishization of the Black men (and boys, but we'll get to that) that he has sex with, and a few key moments where Hollinghurst seems to be on the verge of giving some sort of commentary on this being (at best) problematic. But then...it never quite happens. And I suspect that this is in part due to Hollinghurst having nothing really to say about it. He clearly understands this is an issue, but then drops the ball on what to say about it. Hence, why I find this to be an incredibly white story. Lacking the life experience of having ever been objectified and fetishized in that way puts a white writer at an incredible disadvantage and makes them quite susceptible to perpetuating those problems even as they try to virtue signal that they understand they're bad.
I would be singing Hollinghurst's praises if he would have gone the Nobokov 'Humbert Humbert' route, which is initially where I thought this was going; it has all the trappings, but he just missed out on the substance. He needed to make it clear that while his protagonist didn't understand why this was wrong, he did. This would have been such good allyship, and I so wanted it to be.
There's just enough pushback against this within the fabric of the text for a very close read to reveal it, but for the most part I daresay it will be taken at face value and indeed be instrumental in continuing the long history of this objectification and 'othering' within the queer community that exists to this day.
I would go so far as to say this spectacular misstep outweighs most if not all of the good that is here.
Also verging on commentary but never making it over the finish line were ageism, youth-worship, and predating on teenagers as ugly blots on queer culture. The issues here were quite similar to his issues with discussing race: he seemed to understand the problems, but didn't know how to do anything with them beyond beating the reader over the head with truly unnerving and gratuitous sex scenes as though to say: 'See? SEE? See how often we as a community do this without realizing it???!!!' To which I would respond: 'Yes, thank you, Mr. Hollinghurst; you identified the thing--gold star. Now what?'
So why the 3 stars?
Well, there were some great elements in 'The Swimming Pool Library.' As a literary artifact, it holds a lot of value.
Hollinghurst has said in interviews that his central preoccupation as a writer is chronicalling the parts of gay history that are so often ignored or whitewashed. I've read that his Booker Prize-winning novel, 'The Line of Beauty', is celebrated largely for this very reason. I haven't read that, so I can't say how it compares to 'The Swimming Pool Library' (his 1988 debut), but I hope that he took what he started in this novel and with the passing of the intervening years and gaining of knowledge, elevated it. Because having such a technically talented writer doing such heavy lifting for those of us in the community too young to have had access to the primary sources that he did/does is an invaluable boon for our collective history.
The way he was able to show both how far gay rights had come by the early 80s and yet how little had changed was so delicate, and he clearly had his finger on the pulse of what was going on at the time when everything seemed poised to only get better from there. The fact that the story is set just before the start of the AIDS crisis tinges this observation with an acute melancholy that comes across despite Hollinghurst never referencing it.
The way he builds up the relatively wild abandon of the life Will is able to lead as a (fairly) openly gay man in the early 80s only to, with several key moments, reveal that all was not as peaches and cream as it seemed was spectacular. Gay bashing, police entrapment, and the hollowness that (sometimes) results from hook-up culture all make appearances here.
An element that seemed to bother a lot of my fellow reviewers was the amount of smutty sex. Honestly, I completely understand why Hollinghurst did this. Considering that even now gay sex is considered taboo to the point that right-wing reactionaries think two men or two women kissing in public is lewd, I imagine featuring this very real part of the gay experience (if not the volume of it Will was getting) was quite cathartic for both author and many contemporary readers.
'The Swimming Pool Library' is also (so it seems to me) a stunning portrait of life in queer London. This cataloging of places and 'scenes', while interesting in its own right, don't always gel completely with the plot and do bog down the pacing, especially towards the middle. But boy oh boy can Hollinghurst write. His ability to capture sensory details is immaculate, and so this meandering pacing didn't bother me.
In summation: 'The Swimming-Pool Library' could have been so much better than it was, and I sincerely hope it was a necessary stepping stone that's gotten Hollinghurst to a place where his ability to criticize social problems that plague the community has caught up to his technical writing chops.
While I think 'The Swimming-Pool Library' does occupy an important place in contemporary queer literature it perhaps more importantly highlights the need for more queer POC voices. Hollinghurst absolutely nails everything about upper-class white queer life during the swathe of time the novel covers because it was genuine; he had an intuitive understanding of that side of a marginalized identity. I want so much more of that for our community, but from other perspectives too.
I say this because these lenses advise so much of the reading experience, and the ways in which they overlap are likely to be the difference between someone liking this book or not.
When I say this is primarily a white story this is not only due to the fact that much time is spent describing Black and brown bodies in ways that made me cringe, though this is certainly true. The thing that made this a white (in a derogatory sense) story was the complete lack of understanding on Hollinghurst's side of what to do with his own observations in terms of commentary.
*There is a degree of self-awareness in protagonist Will's objectification and fetishization of the Black men (and boys, but we'll get to that) that he has sex with, and a few key moments where Hollinghurst seems to be on the verge of giving some sort of commentary on this being (at best) problematic. But then...it never quite happens. And I suspect that this is in part due to Hollinghurst having nothing really to say about it. He clearly understands this is an issue, but then drops the ball on what to say about it. Hence, why I find this to be an incredibly white story. Lacking the life experience of having ever been objectified and fetishized in that way puts a white writer at an incredible disadvantage and makes them quite susceptible to perpetuating those problems even as they try to virtue signal that they understand they're bad.
I would be singing Hollinghurst's praises if he would have gone the Nobokov 'Humbert Humbert' route, which is initially where I thought this was going; it has all the trappings, but he just missed out on the substance. He needed to make it clear that while his protagonist didn't understand why this was wrong, he did. This would have been such good allyship, and I so wanted it to be.
There's just enough pushback against this within the fabric of the text for a very close read to reveal it, but for the most part I daresay it will be taken at face value and indeed be instrumental in continuing the long history of this objectification and 'othering' within the queer community that exists to this day.
I would go so far as to say this spectacular misstep outweighs most if not all of the good that is here.
Also verging on commentary but never making it over the finish line were ageism, youth-worship, and predating on teenagers as ugly blots on queer culture. The issues here were quite similar to his issues with discussing race: he seemed to understand the problems, but didn't know how to do anything with them beyond beating the reader over the head with truly unnerving and gratuitous sex scenes as though to say: 'See? SEE? See how often we as a community do this without realizing it???!!!' To which I would respond: 'Yes, thank you, Mr. Hollinghurst; you identified the thing--gold star. Now what?'
So why the 3 stars?
Well, there were some great elements in 'The Swimming Pool Library.' As a literary artifact, it holds a lot of value.
Hollinghurst has said in interviews that his central preoccupation as a writer is chronicalling the parts of gay history that are so often ignored or whitewashed. I've read that his Booker Prize-winning novel, 'The Line of Beauty', is celebrated largely for this very reason. I haven't read that, so I can't say how it compares to 'The Swimming Pool Library' (his 1988 debut), but I hope that he took what he started in this novel and with the passing of the intervening years and gaining of knowledge, elevated it. Because having such a technically talented writer doing such heavy lifting for those of us in the community too young to have had access to the primary sources that he did/does is an invaluable boon for our collective history.
The way he was able to show both how far gay rights had come by the early 80s and yet how little had changed was so delicate, and he clearly had his finger on the pulse of what was going on at the time when everything seemed poised to only get better from there. The fact that the story is set just before the start of the AIDS crisis tinges this observation with an acute melancholy that comes across despite Hollinghurst never referencing it.
The way he builds up the relatively wild abandon of the life Will is able to lead as a (fairly) openly gay man in the early 80s only to, with several key moments, reveal that all was not as peaches and cream as it seemed was spectacular. Gay bashing, police entrapment, and the hollowness that (sometimes) results from hook-up culture all make appearances here.
An element that seemed to bother a lot of my fellow reviewers was the amount of smutty sex. Honestly, I completely understand why Hollinghurst did this. Considering that even now gay sex is considered taboo to the point that right-wing reactionaries think two men or two women kissing in public is lewd, I imagine featuring this very real part of the gay experience (if not the volume of it Will was getting) was quite cathartic for both author and many contemporary readers.
'The Swimming Pool Library' is also (so it seems to me) a stunning portrait of life in queer London. This cataloging of places and 'scenes', while interesting in its own right, don't always gel completely with the plot and do bog down the pacing, especially towards the middle. But boy oh boy can Hollinghurst write. His ability to capture sensory details is immaculate, and so this meandering pacing didn't bother me.
In summation: 'The Swimming-Pool Library' could have been so much better than it was, and I sincerely hope it was a necessary stepping stone that's gotten Hollinghurst to a place where his ability to criticize social problems that plague the community has caught up to his technical writing chops.
While I think 'The Swimming-Pool Library' does occupy an important place in contemporary queer literature it perhaps more importantly highlights the need for more queer POC voices. Hollinghurst absolutely nails everything about upper-class white queer life during the swathe of time the novel covers because it was genuine; he had an intuitive understanding of that side of a marginalized identity. I want so much more of that for our community, but from other perspectives too.