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A review by sloatsj
The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst
3.0
Above all, Alan Hollinghurst can put together a splendid sentence, and that is my weak spot. Plot, setting, character, voice - those matter less to me than the writer's ability to turn a gorgeous phrase.
"Morornic sideburns." "Urine-colored light." "Paramilitary butler." "Dowdy magnificence."
"I attended to my trout with a kind of surgical distaste."
The story is about a 25-year old, financially independent, flamingly gay Londoner named Will and his friendships and active sex life, which revolve around a men’s club called the Corinthian: “a gloomy and functional underworld full of life, purpose and sexuality.” He is romantically involved mostly with himself, but sexually with other men -always a step down socially or otherwise.
Being aimless, well-off and self-involved, Will does not work and has little to occupy him besides sex and gazing at himself in the mirror. One day he manages to save the life of an older man, himself a rich, gay old Lord named Charles Nantwich.
Charles attempts to engage the torporific Will in writing his memoirs, and the plot - which is not particularly strong - becomes a slow unfolding about how homosexuals are vulnerable to persecution and hate and violence of the body and soul. The book is crowded with male anatomy, and there is not one woman in the book, except for the very occasional mention of Will’s sister, who never appears.
I picked this up because I enjoyed [b:The Line of Beauty|139087|The Line of Beauty|Alan Hollinghurst|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1172099924s/139087.jpg|918312]. Although a priapic feast teeming with gay men old and underage is not my usual fare, the prose is wonderful and the plot is sufficiently interesting. It’s worth the little voyeuristic trip.
"Morornic sideburns." "Urine-colored light." "Paramilitary butler." "Dowdy magnificence."
"I attended to my trout with a kind of surgical distaste."
The story is about a 25-year old, financially independent, flamingly gay Londoner named Will and his friendships and active sex life, which revolve around a men’s club called the Corinthian: “a gloomy and functional underworld full of life, purpose and sexuality.” He is romantically involved mostly with himself, but sexually with other men -always a step down socially or otherwise.
Being aimless, well-off and self-involved, Will does not work and has little to occupy him besides sex and gazing at himself in the mirror. One day he manages to save the life of an older man, himself a rich, gay old Lord named Charles Nantwich.
Charles attempts to engage the torporific Will in writing his memoirs, and the plot - which is not particularly strong - becomes a slow unfolding about how homosexuals are vulnerable to persecution and hate and violence of the body and soul. The book is crowded with male anatomy, and there is not one woman in the book, except for the very occasional mention of Will’s sister, who never appears.
I picked this up because I enjoyed [b:The Line of Beauty|139087|The Line of Beauty|Alan Hollinghurst|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1172099924s/139087.jpg|918312]. Although a priapic feast teeming with gay men old and underage is not my usual fare, the prose is wonderful and the plot is sufficiently interesting. It’s worth the little voyeuristic trip.