The Swimming-Pool Library | 
And this one.
"The elegiac tale of young William Beckwith's unlikely friendship with the elderly Lord Nantwich in pre-Aids London is nothing less than a defiant culmination of all the gay literature that had come before. Erudite, erotic and very funny, this aston ishing debut felt like an instant classic and so it has triumphantly proved."
panWhile The Swimming-Pool Library was incredibly ahead of its time, there were startling problematic aspects to an otherwise potent story. The constant racial fetishization became intensely uncomfortable, crossing the line between preference & something more troublesome. The racist undertones & racial stereotyping made me question my will to continue. The characters were odious. The ending lacklustre. The upper-class narrative unrelatable. Bail.
New episode is up about this glimpse into a sub culture. This one surprised us. Check it out on SoundCloud, Apple podcasts, and Google play #1001books #podcast
pickI don‘t know how to review this book. It‘s definitely, as promised, a darkly erotic novel about homosexual men in London just before the AIDS epidemic. It‘s very funny, a little sad, and sort of all over the place. Sometimes I was absorbed and sometimes I was almost bored. But the writing is excellent, and Will reminded me so much of Holden Caulfield (weird?) that I couldn‘t help but love him, and by extension, this book.
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
#1001books
I am posting one book per day from my to-be-read collection. No description and providing no reason for wanting to read it. Some will be old, some will be new - don't judge me, I have a lot of books.
Day 22th
Join the fun if you want!
#tbrpile
pickA perfect excuse to rd a 1st novel by an author whose subsequent bks i enjoyed. Definitely ahead of its time in a portrayal of gay life in the 80's ,sparing no blushes, but also reflecting on the criminalisation of sexuality by the state + homophobia. Some aspects felt in 2021 out dated, & the author does like a yng troubled posh male lead. Glad I read it.
#booked2021 book with library in title @BarbaraTheBibliophage @Cinfhen @4thhouseontheleft
panI can see how this book is often described as important gay fiction, and there were times when I enjoyed the writing style. However, for me, the portrayal of the MCs really jarred. Both incredibly rich, young Will has no need to work, and the elderly Peer spent time in Colonial Africa. Therefore, both MCs‘ obsession with ‘black boys‘ ( and the lower social classes) didn‘t feel like social commentary to me - it just felt really uncomfortable. ⬇️
William Beckwith spends his time idly cruising London for erotic encounters. When he saves the life of an elderly man in a public convenience an unlikely job opportunity presents itself - the man, Lord Nantwich, is seeking a biographer. Will agrees to take a look at Nantwich‘s diaries. But in the story he unravels, a tragedy of twentieth-century gay repression, lurk bitter truths about Will‘s own privileged existence. #swim #boundtogetherjune
🎶 love don't come easy, it's a game of give and take 🎶
#youcanthurrylove #SeptemberSins @Cinfhen @squirrelbrain
Have tagged one of the lgbtq books my homosexual teacher taught me, as it's Mark's turn today.
And I've just finished 'The Strange Death of Europe' by Douglas Murray - 3 🌟. #24b4monday @TheReadingMermaid @Andrew65
The entire story is set in London and its calling William Beckwith's name! #londoncalling #wanderingjune @Cinfhen @BarbaraBB
Cindy, if you enjoy Sparshalt Affair I can recommend this one!
The story is as follows:
The Swimming-Pool Library is an enthralling, darkly erotic novel of homosexuality before the scourge of AIDS; an elegy, possessed of chilling clarity, for ways of life that can no longer be lived with impunity. ⬇️
#bookhaul 📚
Just finished ‘The Sparsholt Affair‘ and loved the author‘s writing so much, I couldn‘t resist picking up 3 more!
Thanks goodness for my B&N employee discount! 😊
The March TBR is almost doable.
so-soNot bad but not great. I liked the plot and the themes, and the old lord‘s life, but I just couldn‘t be interested in the protagonist at all. I just spent the whole novel judging him which I‘m guessing wasn‘t the point. I‘d rather have read it from the old mans perspective with the young man as a side character.
Also just a matter of personal taste but even tho I‘m partly attracted to men, I can only read descriptions of erections for so long.
I‘m still in hardcore revision mode for the #manbooker #literaryfestival next weekend! Only a few authors are getting a word in edgeways this week!
So far this is definitely not my favourite Hollinghurst. Line of Beauty and Stranger‘s Child felt a lot deeper and more beautiful than this, they were sexy but this one more feels just sort of smutty? Not warming to the protagonist at all - not that I can only read books with protagonists I like tho
Downtown always reminds me of the cinema scenes in the tagged book.
#booksandmusic @maich #Marchinbooks
pickGalloping gibbons you should read this book, fantastic literary gay novel capturing British gay life in the 20th century up to the 1980s, and the sex scenes are amazing in a very literary way .
From #Penguins #Twitter account. I've read one, & two are on my TBR pile! #queerbooks
https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/find-your-next-read/reading-lists/2016/may/es...
so-soI had been looking forward so much to reading this book after The Line of Beauty, that maybe it had to be a bit disappointing. The story is about a young gay man working his way through London gay life. He meets an old Lord who asks him to write his biography. To me, the story of this Lord wasn't very interesting, and the end of the story pretty obvious.
Still, Hollinghurst writes very good and it was a pleasure to read the book. #1001books
I'm not homophobic, but there are some unhealthy #gay relationships in this book for @Cinfhen's #badromance #lyricalapril challenge.
so-soThe prose are gorgeous, a strength in the other Hollinghurst novels I've read. It's not much on plot. It is heavy on gay eroticism, which is fine by me but keeps me from recommending this wholeheartedly. I also noticed the kind of fascist turn often leveled at white gay culture to be present in this book. The Line of Beauty is better, The Stranger's Child worse.
