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saturnalyx's review against another edition
emotional
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
jessby's review against another edition
1.0
I can't remember the last time I hated every single character in a book so intensely. Edward Manners, self-absorbed and lacking any insight into himself, preys on pretentious Luc, a 17 year old who he is tutoring in English. Promiscuity I can handle. Gay sex doesn't bother me. Sexual obsession can be fascinating. Hollinghurst put together some good passages here but not enough to save it. I feel like this could have been a great book but I couldn't get past the narcissism. And it was just so BORING.
eskimonika's review
informative
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
vlkr42's review against another edition
Far to long descriptions of the scenery, which is really boring.
bookshelfmonkey's review against another edition
1.0
1 star for good writing. No stars for anything else because the entire book is a 33-year-old man obsessing over his 17-year-old student. It's not cute, it's creepy.
wizard_of_uhhh's review against another edition
3.0
Okay, so. As I've said before, I absolutely love Alan Hollinghurst's evocative, atmospheric writing. I find him psychologically astute and often much funnier than he is generally given credit for. [b:The Line of Beauty|139087|The Line of Beauty|Alan Hollinghurst|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1172099924s/139087.jpg|918312] is, in my opinion, not only enjoyable, but a truly brilliant novel.
So you can imagine that when I started on this, my second Hollinghurst, I had pretty high expectations. Sadly, this book didn't quite live up to them.
Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of things I liked. I enjoyed the sub-plot about the Flemish artist Orst, and I loved Edward's interactions with Paul, the father of one of his students and curator of the Orst museum. The underlying theme of obsession, is a gripping one, and it is handled particularly well in the final third of the book.
The fact remains, however, that the first part of the novel - which is divided into three - was, at least to me, tedious and rather unpleasant. As a reader, I felt no emotional connection to Edward at all, and as a result of this had no empathy whatsoever with him. Because of this, his sexual fixation with his 17-year-old pupil comes off as unilaterally disturbing, and doesn't bring across the moral ambiguity that I presume the author intended.
It also doesn't help that Edward falls in with some really unsavoury and genuinely unpleasant characters, like Matt, for example, whose shady dealings involve porn, a sex phone line, and - most disturbingly of all - a business selling used underwear. As far as we can tell as a reader, Matt has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. By association, Edward comes across as someone equally unpleasant. His frequent sexual encounters are described in much greater detail than necessary, giving the whole segment a seedy, sordid feel to it. And as someone who is not sexually attracted to men, I must say that the various descriptions of penises that are included here are quite unappealing to me. But that's just me.
In fact, I spent the first third of the book wondering when I was going to start caring what happened to Edward at all. It wasn't until the second section, where he returns to England and we are treated to some flashbacks, that he becomes a more three-dimensional character.
I have to say, though, that I thought the ending was handled magnificently.
So you can imagine that when I started on this, my second Hollinghurst, I had pretty high expectations. Sadly, this book didn't quite live up to them.
Don't get me wrong, there were plenty of things I liked. I enjoyed the sub-plot about the Flemish artist Orst, and I loved Edward's interactions with Paul, the father of one of his students and curator of the Orst museum. The underlying theme of obsession, is a gripping one, and it is handled particularly well in the final third of the book.
The fact remains, however, that the first part of the novel - which is divided into three - was, at least to me, tedious and rather unpleasant. As a reader, I felt no emotional connection to Edward at all, and as a result of this had no empathy whatsoever with him. Because of this, his sexual fixation with his 17-year-old pupil comes off as unilaterally disturbing, and doesn't bring across the moral ambiguity that I presume the author intended.
It also doesn't help that Edward falls in with some really unsavoury and genuinely unpleasant characters, like Matt, for example, whose shady dealings involve porn, a sex phone line, and - most disturbingly of all - a business selling used underwear. As far as we can tell as a reader, Matt has no redeeming qualities whatsoever. By association, Edward comes across as someone equally unpleasant. His frequent sexual encounters are described in much greater detail than necessary, giving the whole segment a seedy, sordid feel to it. And as someone who is not sexually attracted to men, I must say that the various descriptions of penises that are included here are quite unappealing to me. But that's just me.
In fact, I spent the first third of the book wondering when I was going to start caring what happened to Edward at all. It wasn't until the second section, where he returns to England and we are treated to some flashbacks, that he becomes a more three-dimensional character.
I have to say, though, that I thought the ending was handled magnificently.
clmckinney's review against another edition
4.0
There were a lot of elements of this book that I thoroughly enjoyed. The main character felt younger than this thirty something age as he often acted like a newly out gay man. I am taken back to my youth and how I became infatuated with cute gay boys when I went out to bars. All the gay bits, I really liked a lot. I didn't love Hollinghurst's tangents about an artist that lasted way too long. But even with the sidetracking, I would give this a solid 4/5.
sarahmoran27's review against another edition
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
raulbime's review against another edition
4.0
An English gay man in his thirties leaves for a Belgian town where he falls for his young student, Luc, the story centering on this obsession. A rover, Edward Manners, the protagonist, never manages to settle, his days are filled with sex escapades, anticipating and planning said escapades, drinking, teaching and pining away. It wasn't until the end did I realize that no one in the book had a happy romantic relationship, the ones that do don't last and everyone is falling for people that can't offer reciprocity. Just like the protagonist, the plot roves and it isn't until tragedy makes Edward return to England that we are able to see a more humane side to the sex-obsessed protagonist with a look into his past and youth and its discoveries, angst, love, promise, loss and grief. The strange thing about this book is the characters I really liked are those we get to know little about, and the moments I wanted more of were rather short. But until the end, even when it seems like Edward's obsession will materialize into a settled fulfillment, the pining and longing persists.
Hollinghurst can write, and I mean write. Not a single sentence falls flat. It really is incredible how tight this book was considering how long it is, at some points because of how loathsome some characters were I was looking for that weak point that would make me abandon this book but I couldn't stop reading. I haven't met anyone who writes of cruising scenes and their atmosphere as intensely accurate as Hollinghurst does. Even the individuals in the story were fleshy with how familiar they were, perhaps a contributing reason to why I disliked them so much.
Hollinghurst can write, and I mean write. Not a single sentence falls flat. It really is incredible how tight this book was considering how long it is, at some points because of how loathsome some characters were I was looking for that weak point that would make me abandon this book but I couldn't stop reading. I haven't met anyone who writes of cruising scenes and their atmosphere as intensely accurate as Hollinghurst does. Even the individuals in the story were fleshy with how familiar they were, perhaps a contributing reason to why I disliked them so much.