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Vintage

The Swimming-Pool Library: A novel (Lambda Literary Award)

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Description

The dazzling first novel from the best-selling, Booker Prize-Winning author of The Line of Beauty and The Sparsholt Affair. 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. The Swimming-Pool Library focuses on the friendship of two men: William Beckwith, a young gay aristocrat who leads a life of privilege and promiscuity, and Lord Nantwich, an elderly man searching for someone to write his biography and inherit his traditions. Read more

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Vintage; Reprint edition (September 19, 1989)


Language ‏ : ‎ English


Paperback ‏ : ‎ 352 pages


ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0679722564


ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 64


Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 11 ounces


Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.2 x 0.7 x 8 inches


Best Sellers Rank: #150,694 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #208 in LGBTQ+ Literary Fiction (Books) #1,418 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction #9,737 in Literary Fiction (Books)


#208 in LGBTQ+ Literary Fiction (Books):


#1,418 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction:


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Top Amazon Reviews

    • A very very good novel that transcends its labels
I was going to begin by saying that I almost wish this were not a "gay novel," but what I really wish is that so many people would stop referring to it as such. How many reviewers, for example, would start out by referring to, say, Sense and Sensibility as a "heterosexual novel"? Of course Hollinghurst's novel couldn't be what it is without homosexuality, but then you could say the same about the heterosexuality of many "straight" novels. The important point is that it's a very very good novel. Nor is it enough to say that it is well-written. It is also beautifully composed, something that goes much deeper and is much more complex than mere "good" writing. For several chapters, the book may seem episodic and rather pointless, but then, almost subconsciously, the reader starts to sense the heave of a theme, the faint strain of a story, like the weaving of beautiful music. And then you're caught and swept along . . . . I won't belabor plot details and character analyses. There have been plenty of other reviews covering those points. What struck me was that after it was all over, it wasn't all over. I've been haunted for days by possibilities of interpretation that only re-reading might help to clear up. Just how trustworthy was our narrator, after all? Just how "nice" was Lord Nantwich, after all? How much of what happened to Will was contrived far in advance? Questions about the ultimate meanings of certain events and about the real emotional impact of events last long after the final page. It's a living, pulsing piece of music. It's a wonderful work of art. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on June 23, 2013 by close reader
    • I like my representation desegregated
I've managed to avoid reading this for so long because of my aversion to ghetto-fied culture. Instead of gay novels, gay movies or gay plays, I'd prefer novels and movies and plays with gay people in them. I like my representation desegregated, thanks. But while definitely a gay novel, "The Swimming Pool Library" is extremely well-written and -crafted; it's also stuffed to the gills with lewd and graphic sex. It's Maugham with a dirty mind, Waugh with a lascivious smile. In pre-AIDS London, William Beckwith is a young, idle Adonis who's drawn to barely-legal working class men. He's a faithless, promiscuous narcissist who demands fidelity while being incapable of it himself. His misanthropy is barely concealed under a shallow veneer of insincere smiles and sarcasm (a trait I recognize from more than a few upper class British twits I've met in my professional life). Beckwith makes a daily habit of picking up lower class men and cruising the showers at the local health club, a routine interrupted by a blooming friendship with an aging member of the house of lords. For lack of anything better to do, he begins to explore the gay past (via the journals and letters of his new octogenarian friend). It's quickly apparent that white gay history can be summarized by a host of c-words: classism, colonialism, condescension, cruelty, complacency. A big reveal toward the end implicating Beckwith's legacy with the systemic oppression of gay people upsets him for an afternoon, but his mood lifts in the gym shower when he encounters his next fresh, hungry distraction. It's brave writing, not just because of the unapologetically explicit sex, but also in its fairly ruthless depiction of white privilege in gay culture. It's gutsy of Hollinghurst to build a world around this unsavory guy, but we follow because it's a well-told tale, worthwhile despite (and because of) the unflattering image reflected in the gilt-framed mirror he hands us. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on April 21, 2018 by Stephen Culp
    • I enjoyed Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty so much
I enjoyed Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty so much, that I purchased this. This book actually wasn't as engaging for me. I actually like reading fiction by authors who identify as homosexual, even though I am not one. I enjoy reading about that alternate world of experience, I feel as if I am learning something and I am also intrigued by lifestyles so different and foreign to my own. However, I didn't like the main character of Will. I found him to be lazy, promiscuous, predatory, vain, entitled.., actually there wasn't anything that I liked about his personality at all. The story did have an interesting moralistic twist that sort of taught the egocentric, pleasure seeking and shallow Will a real life lesson. I don't like to reveal plot details, I feel it spoils the book for the potential reader, but I will say that Hollinghurst is a gifted author and the book is worth a shot. ... show more
Reviewed in the United States on December 31, 2014 by Courtney

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