Hollinghurst writes so beautifully, and does especially good party scenes. I loved the first three sections of this, while the final two (no parties) I thought were only okay. The book didn't quite come together as a whole as much as [b:The Line of Beauty|139087|The Line of Beauty|Alan Hollinghurst|...
I kept putting this down & never wanting to pick it up again, but I was determined to finish & I finally did! The writing is lovely but the plot was not engaging me at all. I liked the first two sections, heavily featuring the Valance/Sawle families, but the rest was just so meh.
n 1912 youthful poet Cecil Valance spends a weekend at the family home of his close friend George Sawle. It is a weekend that is destined to become a minor footnote of literary history when a poem is dedicated to Daphne the teenage daughter of the house, a poem that takes on a life of its own follow...
This tells a riveting and complex saga with profound insight, plenty of intrigue and dashes of wit. From the first dozen pages, even the first few sentences, I was drawn into a love affair with the writing of this book. I read large chunks more than once because the writing is breathtaking, but leis...
This reminded me of The Children's Book a similar mood and cast of characters. Secret relationships, betrayals and poetry are at the center. Cecil Valance is a guy for every occasion and is loved by everyone, drawing them in with his charisma and sexual magnetism. He visits his lover's home, Two Acr...
This is the third novel that I picked up by Hollinghurst and put aside. And while I greatly admire his technical writing proficiency and his play with words, he has yet to be able to pull me into his story. Having lived in this very same area I thought this book might be different for me, it wasn't.
What a frustrating mess of a novel!As it meandered through generations of awkward misunderstandings and flirtations, there's no character to serve as an anchor from jump to jump and no narrative arc. The closest I can get to gleaning the point of Hollinghurst's experiment is a vague notion that he i...
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