The Line of Beauty (2004)
Who wrote it?
Alan James Hollinghurst (1954-; active 1975-), born Stroud, Gloucestershire, England. The son of a bank manager & former WW2 RAF officer, he attended the feeing paying Canford School in Dorset before studying English at Magdalen College, Oxford. While there he shared a house with future poet laureate Andrew Motion and wrote his thesis on Ronald Firbank, E. M. Forster and L. P. Hartley, three gay writers.
In the late seventies he was a lecturer at Oxford, moving to UCL in the early 80s, and was deputy editor on the Times Literary Supplement from 1985 to 1990. His literary career began with poetry, for which he won the Newdigate Prize in 1974, and his first novel (of just six to date), The Swimming Pool Library, wasn't published until 1988. He was first nominated for the Booker Prize for his second, The Folding Star, and won in 2004 for The Line of Beauty.
What's it about?
The Line of Beauty is a 1980s-set novel covered the peak years of Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative rule and the growth of the AIDS crisis. It focuses on Nick Guest, a recent Oxford graduate writing his PhD on Henry James. Now living in a Notting Hill townhouse belonging to the parents of his college friend (and crush) Toby Fedden. The patriarch of the family is Thatcher-obsessed MP Gerald Fedden, married to Rachel and also father to Catherine, a troubled character who forms a closer bond with Nick.
The novel is set in three parts. In the first, The Love-Chord (1983) Nick embarks on a passionate sexual affair with a black council worker called Leo, who he meets through a lonely hearts column. In the second, “To Whom Do You Beautifully Belong?” (1986), Nick is still living with the Feddens and conducting a secret relationship with his closeted Oxford contemporary Wani Ouradi. AIDS begins to rear its head as Catherine’s godfather dies of the disease, and Nick discovers Gerald is having an affair. The section ends with a party for Gerald and Rachel’s 25th wedding anniversary, attended by Margaret Thatcher, with whom Nick dances.
In the final section, The End of the Street (1987), Nick learns that Leo has died of AIDS, and Wani is also suffering in its early stages. The scandal of Gerald’s affair is broken by Catherine during a manic episode, and the press reveals the story of Wani and Nick’s relationship, bringing further scandal to the house. Nick is progressively shunned by all of the Feddens, culminating in Gerald subsequently rewriting the nature of their relationship in order to protect his own reputation. Nick leaves the house with his belongings which awaiting the result of an HIV test, which he assumes will be positive.
What I liked
This is one of the books I was most looking forward to re-reading, having loved it the first time around. I’m also a huge fan of Hollinghurst’s next novel, The Stranger’s Child, and (despite not having yet got around to the others) absolutely adore his prose style. It’s just an absolutely luxuriant reading experience, supremely evocative and rich, without descending into poetic obscurity. My only real disappointment on this front was having to rush through it in a week to keep pace with the blog - it’s a great novel to immerse yourself in slowly, over time.
It has a nice perspective on the period it covers: close enough to feel its reverberations in the present day, and not yet be fully “settled”, but far enough away for perspective and not to feel overly dominated by cliched tropes of the time.
It’s a funny novel - very funny in places - despite not feeling like it’s trying too hard to be funny.
While some of the guesting MPs (both real-world and close mirrors of real-world) have a larger than life, Spitting Image puppet feel to them, the central characters are mostly richly drawn and deeply believable.
The use of Thatcher as the novel’s “heart of darkness”, around which Nick’s (and his world’s) fortunes seem to quite literally revolve, is inspired.
The tragedy of AIDS is subtly but heartbreakingly covered. Never more so than in the visit from Leo’s sister to pass on the news to Nick.
What I didn’t like
This is interesting. While I still absolutely love this book and would happily reread it again and again, I did have a few more reservations this time around.
First, while everything surrounding Nick’s sexuality and the AIDS crisis remains fascinating, I found the novel’s secondary concern - that of class differences between upper middle and upper classes (for surely Nick is nothing less than upper middle class?) somewhat less easy to care about this time around. There’s also a sense within this that the more potentially interesting story of Leo, black, gay and working class, is sidelined. Of course, it’s not Leo’s novel, as such, but it was a shame to see so little of him after his starring role in the first section.
What had stuck with me was the memory of the joy of the early parts of the novel, and I’d forgotten just how crushing the end is for Nick. There’s little optimism in there - all of the gay characters in the book either die or are ostracized for their behaviour, while the likes of the Feddens “can’t lose.” A reality of the times, perhaps, but one in which there is precious little solace, save the consolations of art and beauty.
Again, it’s not necessarily Catherine’s novel, but I did wonder if aspects of her bipolarism were skirted over or treated in a bit of a glib fashion. Part of this is just greed on my part - there are too many potentially engaging, rich characters in one novel, perhaps too many to fully cover in the sort of detail you’d like!
Food & drink pairings
Champagne and Charlie, largely
Fun facts
Some interesting context from Hollinghurst here. His debut novel The Swimming Pool Library is set in 1983 (when he started writing it.) When he published it in 1988, the reality of AIDS had hit home and he had doubts over whether he shouldn’t integrate it somehow. It took until The Line of Beauty for him to feel ready to tackle it properly. This novel is effectively covering the period that Hollinghurst wanted to address, during which he was writing The Swimming Pool Library - 1983-1987.
Life lessons from judge Tibor Fischer:
“What did I learn? Discussion is futile. No one changes their mind about a book. You might as well have a show of hands straight away. There aren’t many bad books (only one novel ended up in the bin after two pages), but there are a lot of so-so, nondescript novels that leave no trace. Publishers are idiots.”
This was adapted for TV almost worryingly quickly, airing in 2006. I have vague recollections of giving it a go and finding it uninspiring. I don’t have firm memories but seem to group it with all of those straight to TV adaptations that remove the magic and mystique of the page in favour of simplification. Not a very exciting cast either, save maybe Tim McInnerny as Gerald and the Borg Queen (sorry, I mean Alice Krige) as Rachel.
Vanquished Foes
Achmat Dangor (Bitter Fruit)
Sarah Hall (The Electric Michelangelo)
David Mitchell (Cloud Atlas)
Colm Tóibín (The Master)
Gerard Woodward (I’ll Go to Bed at Noon)
The firm favourite to win was Mitchell’s innovative Cloud Atlas, and while I love Mitchell, something in me remains rather pleased that The Line of Beauty took it. I haven’t read any of the others - any tips?
The Orange/Women’s Prize was won this year by Andrea Levy for Small Island, against a strong shortlist including Margaret Atwood (2003 Booker shortlisted Oryx and Crake) as well as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie and Rose Tremain. Other than the Atwood, there was no Booker overlap in 2004.
Context
In 2004:
Madrid train bombings kill 192 people
Beslen school siege by Chechen rebels in Russia, ends with more than 330 dead
George W. Bush reelected President of the United States, defeating his Democratic challenger John Kerry
European Union expands by 10 new member states: Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia
European heads of state sign in Rome the Treaty and Final Act, establishing the first European Constitution
Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia are admitted to NATO, the largest expansion of the organization
Orange Revolution begins in Ukraine
Haitian president Jean-Bertrand Aristide overthrown in a coup d'état
Summer Olympics return to Athens, Greece
Michael Schumacher wins his 7th and final Formula One World Championship
Mark Zuckerberg creates Facebook, initially for Harvard students only
Nintendo DS, the best selling handheld game console of all time, is released in North America
Edinburgh becomes UNESCO's first City of Literature
Susanna Clarke, Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell
Karen Joy Fowler, The Jane Austen Book Club
Philip Roth, The Plot Against America
Alan Bennett, The History Boys
The Incredibles
Vera Drake
Million Dollar Baby
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Super Bowl half-time show "controversy" ft. Janet Jackson / Justin Timberlake
Kanye West, The College Dropout
The Killers, Hot Fuss
Arcade Fire, Funeral
Gwen Stefani, Love.Angel.Music.Baby.
Life Lessons
Art, beauty, etc. - fine consolations, in the absence of anything else that’s especially consoling in life
The LINE of beauty, geddit, innit, isn’t it? LINE. Cocaine, Mark, Cocaine…
Don’t get too friendly with Tories
Score
9
While this remains one of my favourite novels on a personal level, it’s not quite the perfect ten in hindsight, and I have to put it just slightly behind a small number of truly exceptional winners so far.
Ranking to date:
The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro (1989) - 9.5
Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie (1981) - 9.5
Disgrace - J. M. Coetzee (1999) - 9.5
The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst (2004) - 9
Moon Tiger - Penelope Lively (1987) - 9
Sacred Hunger - Barry Unsworth (1992) - 9
Oscar & Lucinda - Peter Carey (1988) - 9
The Sea, The Sea - Iris Murdoch (1978) - 9
Life & Times of Michael K. - J. M. Coetzee (1983) - 9
The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy (1997) - 9
Schindler’s Ark - Thomas Keneally (1982) - 9
Life of Pi - Yann Martel (2002) - 8.5
The Bone People - Keri Hulme (1985) - 8.5
How Late it Was, How Late - James Kelman (1994) - 8.5
Troubles - J.G. Farrell (1970, "Lost Booker") - 8.5
The Blind Assassin - Margaret Atwood (2000) - 8
Possession - A. S. Byatt (1990) - 8
Saville - David Storey (1976) - 8
The Siege of Krishnapur - J.G. Farrell (1973) - 8
Vernon God Little - DBC Pierre (2003) - 7.5
The English Patient - Michael Ondaatje (1992) - 7.5
Rites of Passage - William Golding (1980) - 7.5
True History of the Kelly Gang - Peter Carey (2001) - 7.5
Offshore - Penelope Fitzgerald (1979) - 7.5
Last Orders - Graham Swift (1996) - 7
The Elected Member - Bernice Rubens (1970) - 7
The Conservationist - Nadine Gordimer (1974) - 7
Holiday - Stanley Middleton (1974) - 7
Heat & Dust - Ruth Prawer Jhabvala (1975) - 6.5
In a Free State* - V.S. Naipaul (1971) - 6.5
Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha - Roddy Doyle (1993) - 6
G. - John Berger (1972) - 6
The Famished Road - Ben Okri (1991) - 6
Something to Answer For - P. H. Newby (1969) - 5.5
The Ghost Road** - Pat Barker (1995) - 5.5
Staying On - Paul Scott (1977) - 5
Amsterdam - Ian McEwan (1998) - 5
Hotel du Lac - Anita Brookner (1984) - 4.5
The Old Devils - Kingsley Amis (1986) - 4
*Read in later condensed edition.
**Third part of a trilogy of which I hadn’t read pts 1&2
Next up
A surprise winner in 2005, in the shape of John Banville’s The Sea…
