The Swimming-Pool Library
While not literally read so, this came on the heels of 'Dancer from the Dance' for me, and I'm afraid it suffered in comparison. 'The Swimming-Pool Library' is set in a similar time and has a majority of homosexual characters, but by all other standards the two shouldn't be compared so. The style and tone of the two are much different. Likely because Hollinghurst writes of the world not during its zenith but looks back at it wistfully.
The author differs with me, but the hedonistic world William revels in is far too icky for me to be comfortable reading about. The clear, limpid prose only highlights the discomfort. I can set a lot of things aside, and some authors can even get me to see the value of this level of debauchery...but not this one. The plot of the novel eventually brings the aristocratic William Beckwith to a moral dilemma that doesn't deal with who he's fucking at the moment. Hollinghurst seems to point towards a change of character, a discovery of moral fiber, but it seems to me to be a triumph of his laziness. It is very easy to do the right thing when the right thing is doing nothing.
I liked the book enough while reading, but when pressed to say why, I can only say it was elegant.
