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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Nice Portrait of Different Generations,
By
This review is from: The Spell (Mass Market Paperback)
Alan Hollinghurst's The Spell is, first and foremost, wonderfully written. The author manages, for the most part, to effectively capture different generations (perhaps weakest on the youngest generation) far more than most writers in the gay field. I do not know that it was necessary for them all to be so specatular looking (or at least to their physical beauty to be referred to so often as a part of the narrative). It is the writing, though, that, in the end, will carry the reader through the lives of these four men as they examine and obscure their past, present and future. It is a pleasant read with a satisfying ending.
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Least Gay Fiction by A Gay Author,
By Detlef 1928 "Detlef Lührsen" (München) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Spell (Mass Market Paperback)
I am enchanted by this novel. It has everything a good tale should have. Love, flirtation, disappointment in the lives of the four main characters, suspension and denouement in their actions or passivity, a wonderful description of the environment in which these upper-middle class Englishmen move, a lovely style so full of unexpected turns of phrase and new insights for someone like me who was never attracted by drugs, life in the country or people older than me.
What however strikes me most is the absence of happenings that are typically gay. Perhaps the only true gay experience lies in the switch of Robin's persuasion from hetero husband to gay father and this must have happened twenty years ago and is not gone into in any great detail. All the other events could occur in any group of people not necessarily gay. Danny, whose development from a flirtatious, irresponsible young thing to a person of maturity, could be Daniela; Justin, who leaves Alex for Robin, Danny's father, could be Justine; Terry, the slut, could be the village whore, Teresa. A few minor characters who move in gay circles could be the personnel of any novel. Alex's mid-life crisis which drives him to young blood, is not a particularly gay feature. Nor are the whims and predilections of the novel's characters particular to gay lifestyle. To sum up: Alan Hollinghurst has written a masterly novel which should attract anyone whether gay or not, because it is a perfect comédie humaine.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Both intimate and operatic,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Spell (Hardcover)
Hollinghurst's third novel is very much like an eighteenth-century play or opera (think "Marriage of Figaro" or, more recently, Sondheim's "A Little Night Music") in which social mores are explored and exposed through the follies of a tight band of entwined (so to speak) characters. Like in a play, each of the four men here is given his moment in the sun, which has the wonderful effect of giving us insight into characters both sympathetic (Alex) and despicable (Justin), all of whom are revealed to have just as much humanity as all the rest of us flawed humans. Also as with a play, the "stage" of the novel is quite circumscribed: principally, gay London and Robin's country house, where a big summer party is the novel's central scene. Hollinghurst is a master craftsman when it comes to language; his first novel, "The Swimming Pool Library," was a historical tour de force, while his second, "The Folding Star," featured great scenes and compelling characters but failed to hold together, ending much too abruptly after considerable meandering. "The Spell" on the other hand is tightly constructed, a spellbinding read that I couldn't put down. Hollinghurst has taken the stale genre of the comedy of manners and created something utterly fresh and wonderful.
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