A review by mehrangezmr
The Sparsholt Affair by Alan Hollinghurst

4.0

Yet another beautifully-written and wildly absorbing novel from the pen of Alan Hollinghurst. When I say absorbing, I mean I missed my stop on the tube while reading this, multiple times! The irony is that - a lot happens in the novel but all off-the-page as it were. The much-vaunted 'affair' of the title is never clarified - it's up to us to piece it together. The eponymous David Sparsholt is never really fleshed out but remains an enigmatic locus for the yearnings of the other characters, all of whom are fully realised and appealing; I loved his gentle son Johnny and the verbal stylings of one of his legions of university admirers, Freddy. Evert Dax, whose perspective we don't enter very frequently, seems to me the emotional heart of this novel. I was glad he found happiness at last. I was sorry to say goodbye to the characters in this book. Just lovely.