The Evolution of One of Fiction’s Gay Liberators

If the awful portrait mentioned of the Duchess of Cambridge was of the woman before her name change it would not be in the NPG. Of which she is patron. I would be surprised if Hollighurst had not met her in his life as part of the gallery's elite. She is not Kate Middleton any longer,

Given the period, what can be possibly wrong or amiss with calling people "Major this" and "Wing Commander" that, or with "Churchill-loving"? Those people helped win the war! The honourifics were tokens of basic gratitude and respect, that's all. It's this kind of tendentiousness that turns me off the NYT completely these days.

Is it possible to be a gay man who likes literary fiction and finds Hollinghurst's work to be not very compelling? I confess to being one such. He's a very fine writer, to be sure, but "The Swimming Pool Library" and other of his books I've looked at seem totally superficial, devoid of psychological and intellectual depth. A Christopher Isherwood, James Merrill, Ed White he isn't, not to speak of Henry James.

A fascinating read! I've never read Hollinghurst before, but this article (and the attached comments) have definitely peaked my interest. Not only is it refreshing and empowering to see more members of the LGBTQ community become increasingly accepted and praised, but it's also extremely revolutionizing to see such boldness coming out of the writers themselves. The written word has traditionally been composed through pseudonym-clad and identity-hidden authors, so having transparency behind the pen creates as wide and strong an impact in today's day and age as does the words in a book themselves. In contrast to Hollinghurst's comment that "contemporary life doesn't have the things I find most interesting... Secrecy, concealment, danger," I think the lies and manipulation of the last decade could do with some new perspectives and an increase of honesty and transparencies. Hollinghurst may write about the past, but his personal story and dream of a society where all sexualities are simply accepted truths are inspirations to modern people everywhere; fortunately, the attainability of his goals grows increasingly closer each day.

Hollinghurst is one of my favorite authors and the Line of Beauty is one of my favorite books (along with Swimming Pool Library). Read Sparsholt and enjoyed it. This line from the article: For Hollinghurst, homosexuality is a democratizing force; it brings people together people across boundaries of race and class and age. While times are better, we're not where we need to be. Coming out, which for me was one of the hardest, if not hardest, things I ever did, is still too difficult, painful and impossible for many. Imagine a world where no gay or lesbian young adult (or adult) had to "come out," but could just be. I don't believe that is a naive aspiration.

"Ho! everyone that thirsteth And hath the price to give, Come to the stolen waters. Drink and your soul shall live." Thus eminent classicist and poet, A. E. Housman. Himself devoured with longing for young men. All this, of course, under an impenetrable cover of reserve and respectability. The stolen waters! I say it with sorrow--I say it with sympathy for Mr. Hollinghurst and all those imaginary gay protagonists in all those lively, well-written novels. The stolen waters bring death. A picture of our lost, ruined humanity. We get the things we crave--we sate ourselves with our own longings and passions. And they kill us. I hope Mr. Hollinghurst (after so many years) comes to greater wisdom on this matter. I truly do. Thanks. Fascinating article.

I enjoyed the article so much that I read samples of “The Swimming-Pool Party” and “The Spell”. Hollinghurt’s powers of observation and description are formidable, but the number of extended descriptions of various “membrum virum” and sexual encounters, seem to be more erotica than aesthetics. “Either-or” is fine, but it would take a lot more plot for them to be both.

Delicious essay. Thank you. W/share with friends who deserve a good read.

The Feddens' attitude towards Nick's sexuality, tolerated but not to be discussed, reflects, as Hollinghurst deftly shows throughout in The Line of Beauty, the prevailing atmosphere during Thatcher's supercilious England of the time. Many pubs with a gay clientele closed mid-afternoon and did not reopen until 5:30 PM, last call at 11:30, strictly enforced. Frequently on business in London in the early '80's, for drinks I would occasionally go to the Salisbury, in St. Martin's Lane, and clearly remember a staff happy to take the considerable gay clientele money but decidedly chilly (and at times resentful) in their manner. It's a sort of hypocrisy, not unlike Updike's own, he who ironically plumps for homogeneity topically in literature, only the man-woman story bears telling. Why the squeamishness? There's little, if anything at all, in either erotic world that has been mutually exclusive.

Interesting that the anti-Hollinghurst critic mentioned is John Updike, whose lapidary prose style, fixation on erotic (heterosexual) coupling, and keen eye for paintings are so similar to the British writer's. What Updike, the Calvinist puritan, probably found lacking in "The Swimming Pool Library" is its utter absence of guilt in matters of sexual promiscuity, a condition that many of us on this side of the pond have long envied, not deplored, about Old World mores.

Thanks for this wonderfully balanced and thoughtful article. It reminds me of one the Times just published a couple of weeks ago by Rumaan Alam, an appreciation of the British novelist, Anita Brookner. Both Hollinghurst and Brookner occupy hallowed space on my book shelves. When I unpacked my books this year after a move to a new house, these authors felt like trusted mentors and friends. I just purchased 'The Sparsholt Affair' and can't wait to read it (and all of Hollinghurst's and Brookner's novels again). The prospect of re-reading these authors' work now that I'm close to 70 is more wonderful than I can say. I lived in the land of John Updike for a decade or so (the North Shore of MA), so I wasn't surprised by his homophobic and heterosexist review of Hollinghurst's work. Updike's world seemed as gray as the New England weather, privileged in ways that excluded many parts of human experience. I'm grateful for writers and reviewers like Geoff Dyer who have the imagination and compassion to inhabit worlds outside their life experience.

Thanks for this delightful essay. You've inspired me and others to read his works...I'm #71 on the "hold" list at the NYPL :-)

The year the year that The Swimming Pool Library was published, my boyfriend was occupied with dying at NYU/Tisch. Reading that book was a vacation to a time when AIDS did not exist, and all of our lives were not consumed by it. I was not the only terrified, bewildered 'caregiver" sitting in the hallway at Coop Care enjoying the beauty of 1983 until it was time to take the elevator back to the hospital room and help start the drip line.

Have read most of Alan Hollinghurst's novels and they are excellent. Thoroughly enjoyed this insightful article about the author...

The critique that Updike gave is telling. It’s always fascinating to go back and see how certain prejudices went unchallenged by the mainstream. I’m sure his derogatory comments were simply shrugged off by most people at the time. “Oh - you know old Updike - he doesn’t go in for that-sort-of-thing”. My then ex-boyfriend Michael make me read The Swimming Pool Library. I was in my 20’s and, to be honest, I didn’t regard the protagonist as particularly promiscuous in comparison to myself and my set of NYC friends. I did, however, consider the freedom from financial constraint to be foreign to the point that it seemed fantastical. In retrospect I realize that I could have traded in my youth for some of that freedom, but that’s just trading one type of constraint for another, really. Immersing oneself into another’s experience is a gift that comes with great fiction. I remember the moment while reading Ha Jin’s novel Waiting when it was revealed that the China I’d been reading about for over a hundred pages was not located in the 19th century but, rather, in the 1970’s, and being astonished about it. I was grateful that the author had pulled back the veil and allowed me to see an entire world that had previously been opaque to me. I never once wished that there had been some gay people in it. I guess I’m not as demanding as Updike. Thank god.

Solid article. I saw Hollinghurst on stage once in London at a Guardian event, and this essay caught in words how he appeared in that real life glimpse. I believe he said something to the effect that he "had lived his 40s in his 20s and his 20s in his 40s." Hollinghurst's first three books and his latest are among my absolute all-time favorites. Can't wait to see him in Philly at a reading on March 27.

This was a thoughtful, thoroughly researched and delicious piece of writing. I've read it twice, and am bookmarking it to read on weekends to come. Thank you for this.

What a wonderful essay about a truly great novelist.

A terrific and illuminating piece about a wonderful novelist. Thank you.

Thank you for this lovely essay. I remember reading "The Swimming-Pool Library" when it was first published, enjoying it, but somehow losing Hollinghurst's other works along the way. In his review of “The Sparsholt Affair,” Dwight Garner writes,"His sensibilities are so fine you sense he can detect a pea beneath 20 mattresses when it comes to failures of tact, poise and discernment." I will now have the pleasure of immersing myself in Hollinghurst's books and enjoying his fine sensibilities.

Hollinghurst is simply a brilliantly talented writer. I have devoured every one of his books as soon as I've been able to get my hands on them (why, oh why does this stupid gap in publications dates still exist between the US and Europe?). I highly recommend his books to anyone who enjoys a well-written, riveting story.

Alan Hollingshurst is a wonderful writer and chronicler about worlds so different from my own life as a heterosexual woman. He writes sentences that are lines of beauty and filled with insight and knowledge of the human experience. I have recently returned to his books and have been saving The Sparsholt Affair, knowing that when I am done I will be bereft. Would that I too could walk through the National Portrait Gallery in his company.

Growing up in this country in the forties and fifties in a very conventional family where I was sheltered from many of life's complexities, I was barely aware of the existence of homosexuals. Of gay literature or gay bars or gay achievements in the arts, I knew nothing. Even today -- apart from a few men I have encountered who gave off the appearance of possibly being gay, I cannot begin to guess how many homosexuals I may have known in my life. It may have been many or a few. I regret the great many horrors that gays have encountered getting to the place and time where we are right now; and rejoice in the fact that someday soon we may be living in a time when the whole matter of sexual orientation will no longer occupy the excessive time and attention it still does now. As for the future, I propose we all of us be guided by Mrs. Patrick Campbell's famous admonition about gays to a friend. "My dear, I don't care what they do, so long as they don't do it in the street and frighten the horses."

Thank you for this compelling profile of this magnificent novelist. There’s no need to be either gay or fervently sexual to recognize that no one else quite captures in prose the immediacy of discovering the wild thrills that are almost carelessly strewn about us all, thrills that most people never notice. Hollinghurst is simply one of the most excited and exciting composers of sentences I’ve ever read. Talk about lines of beauty!

Oh, what a delicious read this is! THANK YOU, GILES HARVEY, for a magnificent essay!

His writing is beautiful.

Beautifully written piece. As good as they come.