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A review by ripavengers
The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst
2.0
so its 1:30am and i just finished writing a 2500 word essay on this book. ill be honest i only read the first 200 pages and then skim read parts of the rest for context and quotes + using the wiki page to help me complete because i ran out of time to finish reading it before the essay was due. but im marking it as read because i pretty much know what happens in it now.
i dont really have much to say about it. my essay was on sexual desires and hierarchies of power so i rambled on about how Will sleeps with people that are seen as lower than him in society in order to gain power and how homophobia and rejection make him lose power.
i didnt love this book though. the characters were all wildly unlikeable and the kind of casual racism was uncomfortable. i dont even like to read sex scenes but they were boring and quick despite being pretty much the whole plot.
a lot of what was going on seemed unnecessary tbh. the only good thing i could say about this book would be the sort of gay uptopia it created where nearly everyone is either gay or an ally (until obviously the homophobia plotlines come in towards the last few chapters)
perhaps revolutionary for the time it was written and set but not so much needed today.
i dont really have much to say about it. my essay was on sexual desires and hierarchies of power so i rambled on about how Will sleeps with people that are seen as lower than him in society in order to gain power and how homophobia and rejection make him lose power.
i didnt love this book though. the characters were all wildly unlikeable and the kind of casual racism was uncomfortable. i dont even like to read sex scenes but they were boring and quick despite being pretty much the whole plot.
a lot of what was going on seemed unnecessary tbh. the only good thing i could say about this book would be the sort of gay uptopia it created where nearly everyone is either gay or an ally (until obviously the homophobia plotlines come in towards the last few chapters)
perhaps revolutionary for the time it was written and set but not so much needed today.