Alan Hollinghurst's novel is ground breaking, the first book to openly discuss homosexuality.
Also it is honest view of a life most of us don't know about. There is promiscuousness to the highest degree from the main character Will Beckwith. Will can live without working due to the fortune of his grandfather Viscount Beckwith.
This makes him spoilt and for me the idea that he can do and have whatever he wants.
This makes him spoilt and for me the idea that he can do and have whatever he wants.
The physical descriptions of his conquests is not always for the faint hearted. He is obsessed with physical beauty, often acting on instinct and sleeping with random strangers. Will is carefree and often quite unbearable yet he slowly unravels and I do mean slowly.
His relationship with Lord Charles Nantwich is the catalyst, you see a change in Will as it transpires his perfect life is not so perfect, particularly as he learns secrets closer to home.
The other side of the book is the homophobia, Will is violently attacked by skin heads, characters are arrested by policemen for their sexuality, it doesn't only reminisces to a time past, but the present controversies only reflect how little we understand homosexuality really.
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