an astonishing book.
like colm toibin, hollinghurst narrates colourful and complex perspectives of gay life, including the spread of AIDS in the 1980s, using a tri-partite structure. but hollinghurst is a master of style in a manner toibin hasn't yet come close to. henry james, the other master, floats throughout the novel, a character haunting nick, made present through illusion and allusion, and the novel is jamesian minus all the sub-clauses.
that hollinghurst can write a historical novel set in the 80s is testimony to his incredible skill as a writer. the 80s context, of conservatism, coke and cruising, is a wonderfully fertile context for him to tell the story of nick guest. there is tremendous complexity and subtlety in his narration; precise observations are rendered in lucid prose, and pauses and lacunae incessantly bring truth to bear. but it perhaps the flow of things... money, sex, power, drugs, shame, elections...passing between people, blurring the lines between inside and outside, between insider and outsider, host and guest, innocent and experienced...this flow that is the most captivating thing about this novel. these lines, going in every direction.
