 A massive achievement, 2008-07-04
Alan Hollinghurst's fourth novel is his most feted, winning the Booker Prize. It is further proof that Hollinghurst is one of our greatest living writers and this novel makes three great works. (I'm afraid "The Spell" didn't do it for me). This is a tale of Tory Britain in the 80s, of wealth, class, greed and excess. Nick Guest lives in London with the family of his Oxford University friend, the Feddens, in a household dominated by the larger than life presence of Gerald, a Tory MP. The beautiful first section charts Nick's relationship with Leo, a working-class black guy who fears his religious mother uncovering his sexuality. The less successful second section sees Nick with Wani, a son of a multi-millionaire whose life is even more closeted than Nick's and Leo's and who leads Nick into an inevitably disastrous would of drugs and cocaine-fuelled sex. The third section moves the story on another couple of years where the shadow of AIDS is looming large and beginning to stalk the gay characters and the "golden era" of the early Thatcher years experienced by most of the characters is beginning to become severely tarnished.
This book is superbly written and impressive. However, I do feel that the enjoyment factor is a little lacking compared to "The Swimming Pool Library", maybe the wealthy classes in London in the mid 80's just threw up too many noxious characters. This does tend to distance the reader, it can be hard to feel sympathetically towards any of them at times, but nevertheless this book is a massive achievement.
 An excellent cure for insomnia, 2008-10-13
Goodness me - a racy novel about gay love and freeloading in the 80's that won the Booker Prize. Does it deserve to have won? Well, yes, based on the fact that it's well-written, doesn't actually go anywhere in terms of storytelling, and nearly all of the characters are unlikeable people you'd probably cross the road to avoid.
As for the tosh about capturing the essence of Britain during these times - don't believe a bit of it. Authors like Jonathan Coe do that much better than The Line of Beauty - and achieve it with humour at the same time. Another Booker winner that shows the prize is out of touch with what most of us want from a book.
But - ideal if you like pretentious writing that will certainly put you to sleep. What on earth was the fuss all about? This is well-written drivel, but nothing more.
Book review for the Line of Beauty, 2009-01-06
Alan Hollinghurst's "the Line of Beauty" is his fourth novel winning the Man Book Prize. The Line of Beauty followed his first three, "The Swimming Pool Library, "The Folding Star" and "The Spell."
"The Line of Beauty" critically analyses the Thatcher era, by following the story of a young man, Nick Guest, through his homosexual experiences, drug taking and discovering the faults and flaws of the high class society during this period.
Nick a middle class graduate from Oxford lands himself a place in the home of a conservative MP, through the help of his rich, upper-class friend Toby from Oxford. Gerald Fedden the Conservative MP, his wife Rachel, daughter Catherine and son Toby adopt Nick into the family engaging him in all social gatherings.
Nick's private life, which does not alarm the Feddens but is not typically conservative, becomes more incompatible overtime. His first gay sexual experience to his affair with a beautiful millionaire that leads him to a taste of coke brings the downfall of the family alongside the duplicate affairs and scandals, with the tragedies of AIDS.
The story leads to show the cracks and the scandals that immerge in the high English society, the drugs and the affairs and dealing with the problems of aids. Hollinghurst shows a deluded high society, success can be lost easily. Hollinghurst's descriptive writing builds a character rather than a plot, with the main bulk of the story been filled with description on the character giving a slow, possibly torturing slow pace to the story. This book bears an accurate likeness to the Thatcher era and although the descriptive pages of character after character, this book is a very interesting read. Hollinghurst has captured the 80's troubles with aids, delusions of high society, drugs and affairs very well.
A literary prizewinner maybe but I found the story rather boring., 2008-10-18
This book is obviously a great literary achievement, must be as it won the Booker prize. Although I found this very well written from a purely literary viewpoint I just could not get into the story and just found it boring! I almost feel guilty admitting this as it seems that the majority of reviewers consider it brilliant. I however struggled to keep reading and it took me so long to do so, for me a sign that it lacked appeal.
It is an exploration of the 1980's through the eyes of the protagonist Nicholas Guest, a young graduate from Oxford, exploring his homosexuality. He lodges with the family of a friend from Oxford, Toby whose address just happens to be one of the best in London as his father is Tory MP Gerald Fedden. We therefore gain an insight into the lifestyle of a wealthy MP and his family including his manic depressive daughter Catherine, Nick seems to be one of the only people she trusts.
In reading this you will certainly get an insight into the unpleasant excesses of the Thatcher years and Nick's desire to be part of the wealthy world of greed and politics that he is mixing in. He never quite fits in though and in the end even gets the blame for the failures of others as scandal and death overwhelm him.
Without a doubt this a beautifully written novel but it just did not appeal to me.
Structure narrative vs. poetic pros, 2009-01-04
The first thing that struck me when reading The Line Of Beauty was how carefully it trod the line between a structured narrative story and descriptive, sometimes poetic pros. Hollinghurst relies heavily on long descriptions of both the environment and characters, often using both to compare and contrast each other. While there is little doubt in my mind that the styling within his writing is phenomenal, his use of language to create images and evoke emotion is arguably the best explanation for his Booker Prize win, I did find that it was at the expense of moving the story along. I found, particularly in the first few chapters, that while a lot had been said, in terms of the story, little had been achieved. I felt his depiction of Thatcher England from the perspective of the upper classes was interesting as so much is written from the perspective or with sympathy for lower social class groups. However, this may have resulted in a lack of sympathy for the principal characters. Contrasting conservative values with the life of a homosexual young man should have lead to sympathy and yet with so many advantages in life the key characters plight seemed somewhat self indulgent considering what history reminds others were suffering, the HIV aspects being an exception to the rule, which was dealt with frankly while still sensitively. While certainly covering its key themes in detail, particularly class conflicts, Thatcherism and heterosexual hypocrisy, I found the story to be disengaging at times and found the mass amount of descriptive writing to flood the story itself. While I am pleased I continued to read until the end, as the final chapters brought the story to an interesting climax, I found the start hard work and as a result the book less enjoyable.
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