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Hollinghurst, the gay author, is a beautiful, elegant, paced writer. And this audiobook is read perfectly. But, whoa, slow. David Winn has many layers of separation between his single mother home, half-Burmese appearance, gay sexuality, and those of wealthy, elite-school classmates. The book keeps going through his 1970‘s acting career, many relationships, and on to covid. A little too much too slowly for this listener. But I liked the style.

I‘ve been picking away at this since Dec 27. I‘m sort of mostly done, but just wanted to share what I‘m actively listening to.

This is my first Hollinghurst, so I‘m just learning what an elegant prose writer he is. Everything is beautiful. It‘s also really long, patient and slow. The life a gay actor on an Oxford scholarship.

This book started strong but completely fizzled out 40% in. I bailed at 60%—life‘s too short for boring books, and I‘ve hit my limit on privileged, elite British society.

All the feelings of a big classic novel. This is old-fashioned storytelling, complete with lush prose, layers of characterisation, and a context that lives as much as the characters do. A really immersive story about struggles of class, race, sexuality, and family in post-war Britain. I wish I‘d been able to submerge myself in this more completely, a drawn out reading let me miss a bit of nuance I‘m sure. An excellent read.

https://youtu.be/hBRI4qByLMU?si=Zk-rWAaPNrHx42Ya

Gay sex in literature didn‘t just make me a reader – it humanised my desire by Jamie Valentino: https://www.penguin.co.uk/articles/2023/06/gay-literature-erotic-novels

One of the things I‘m learning about myself as I grow as a reader is that sometimes I just need a hard reset. Today is one of those days for me. I‘m going to DNF these two for now. Though I am interested in Josephine Baker‘s life, this biography is not hitting right for me. I‘m enjoying the tagged but I‘m just not feeling like finishing it right now. Does anyone else relate to this need for a hard reset sometimes?

Classics in the literature of HIV/AIDS and gay life in NYC during the 1980s. These are heartbreaking and highly emotional plays. I‘ve had them on my shelf forever and am glad I used them for the #booked2022 #aboutHIVAIDS prompt. Kramer is semi-autobiographical, especially in Destiny, which I wish I‘d read first. It‘s more of a coming out story. Normal Heart is focused on the early days of the epidemic

Full review https://www.TheBibliophage.com

Stunningly beautiful.
A triumph of its genre.
The Spell explores the entanglement of Robin, Justin, Danny and Alex, as they navigate lust, love, drugs, sex and intrigue with Hollinghurst's distinctive prose.

My full video review is on my BookTube channel: https://youtu.be/mOAnJW6KcZk.

This 1919 American novel by the now-forgotten Chicagoan writer Henry Blake Fuller portrays gay male life so subtly that few of its contemporary readers and reviewers had the foggiest what it was all about. They weren't outraged, just confused as all get-out. Fuller was so put-out he withdrew the novel and died a decade later.

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