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The Line of Beauty

By Alan Hollinghurst

(59)

| Hardcover | 9780330483209

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Book Description

In the summer of 1983, twenty-year-old Nick Guest moves into an attic room in the Notting Hill home of the Feddens: conservative Member of Parliament Gerald, his wealthy wife Rachel, and their two children, Toby-whom Nick had idolized at Oxford-and Catherine, highly critical of her family's assumptiContinue

In the summer of 1983, twenty-year-old Nick Guest moves into an attic room in the Notting Hill home of the Feddens: conservative Member of Parliament Gerald, his wealthy wife Rachel, and their two children, Toby-whom Nick had idolized at Oxford-and Catherine, highly critical of her family's assumptions and ambitions.

As the boom years of the eighties unfold, Nick, an innocent in the world of politics and money, finds his life altered by the rising fortunes of this glamorous family. His two vividly contrasting love affairs, one with a young black clerk and one with a Lebanese millionaire, dramatize the dangers and rewards of his own private pursuit of beauty, a pursuit as compelling to Nick as the desire for power and riches among his friends. Richly textured, emotionally charged, disarmingly comic, this U.K. bestseller is a major work by one of our finest writers.

Critics

  • Between the lines

    The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst 501pp, Picador, £16.99 A few pages into Alan Hollinghurst's novel, something remarkable happens. The gay hero, Nick Guest, is on his way to a blind date but is waylaid by his land-lady's daughter, a highly stru ... (read full critics)

    guardian.co.uk published on Sat, 25 Sep 2010

  • His cup runneth over

    Nick, the central character in Alan Hollinghurst’s wonderful new novel, is a young, alert middle-class boy with precociously refined aesthetic sensibilities and a gift for endearing himself to others. ‘He liked to be charming, and hardly noticed when ... (read full critics)

    spectator published on Fri, 17 Sep 2010

6 Reviews

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  • 4 people find this helpful

    Beautiful prose and acute social observations. Reading through this novel, you'd really feel like living as a borderline socialite in the 1980s in the UK. However the book leave me with a sense of irrelevance - as if you've driven by a beautiful house, peeked into that beautiful front bay window, sa ... (continue)

    Beautiful prose and acute social observations. Reading through this novel, you'd really feel like living as a borderline socialite in the 1980s in the UK. However the book leave me with a sense of irrelevance - as if you've driven by a beautiful house, peeked into that beautiful front bay window, saw the beautiful people moving around. And that's it.

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    s tsui said on Apr 24, 2006 about the Paperback edition | 2 feedbacks

  • 3 people find this helpful

    Creating likeable characters was not the main point. nick is a rather classical anti-hero, he has no charisma and he is opportunistic. All he does is passing through history , taking the best from his rich pals and skipping the damages some of them encounter. but the prose is subtle and sophisticate ... (continue)

    Creating likeable characters was not the main point. nick is a rather classical anti-hero, he has no charisma and he is opportunistic. All he does is passing through history , taking the best from his rich pals and skipping the damages some of them encounter. but the prose is subtle and sophisticated and the taste for beauty is melancholic. I particularly like the character of Leo, well shaped. In general I've found it a clever, beautiful novel, with a classical touch that impressively counterbalance the 80s setting

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    Jenny Schecter said on Jul 23, 2007 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • 1 person find this helpful

    None of the characters are likable, it doesn't really try to drive home the satirical possibilities of the Thatcher era and it was only the quality of the writing that enabled me to persevere until the end.

    In the end a certain depth of understanding of Nick the main character develops but it' ... (continue)

    None of the characters are likable, it doesn't really try to drive home the satirical possibilities of the Thatcher era and it was only the quality of the writing that enabled me to persevere until the end.

    In the end a certain depth of understanding of Nick the main character develops but it's not really full return on the time spent reading.

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    huntch said on Apr 30, 2007 about the Paperback edition | 1 feedback

  • Very enjoyable. Loved the way it seemed to capture the mood of the period and the characters inhabiting the book seemed very natural. Wry humour contrasts with some poignant detail.

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    Mearso said on Jan 2, 2011 | Add your feedback

  • 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 reviewe ... (continue)

    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.

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    Lindyloumac said on Dec 4, 2009 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

  • Winner of the Booker prize. I wanted a taste of good literature, and I got one. I should read novels more often.

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    Leebeck said on Feb 29, 2008 about the Paperback edition | Add your feedback

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