A review by sandygx260
The Spell by Alan Hollinghurst

2.0

This was another book I had abandoned out of sheer boredom. This time I finished the book, but the book was like eating oatmeal. Nothing wrong with oatmeal, it's hot and nourishing, but not exciting. The characters were unappealing and unlikeable. In truth, they were worse than oatmeal. On the whole the writing seemed accomplished but too many passages tried too hard. The effort in the writing translated into effort in reading. There seemed to be no joy in the act of writing.

I confess the extremely "British" prose also got in the way. Saying that a quilt is the color of Germolene, a pain cream I actually know of from my UK travels, is a bit much.

I understand that this is one of Hollinghurst's earlier works. I still might sample a more recent novel.

But at least I rescued another book marker from being trapped between unread pages.