The Line of Beauty by Alan Hollinghurst

I have to confess to being slightly distracted from reading the Bookers by the lure of tennis.  Yes, it’s that time of year when despite (sometimes) lovely weather outside I find myself glued to the television, eyes fixated on the lawns and whites of Wimbledon.  And when I promise myself I’ll just watch the end of this game/set/match, it then of course lasts forever!  Unfortunately it’s not an activity that can be combined successfully with reading, despite my best efforts, as I seem to miss the winning shot and/or end up re-reading the same sentence over and over again as I lose my place on the page.

Anyway, in the face of such other attractions I have managed to finish the 2004 winner.  And my lasting impression of this book is Hollinghurst’s delightful prose, which bodes well with the publication of his latest book, his first since winning.  The magnificent writing managed to embody the title of the book as my eyes just skipped merrily along the lines on each page instead of needing to be willed with concentration.  The subject of the title was also represented by various considerations of beauty within the pages; how it is subjective ‘in the eye of the beholder’ such as the worship of Margaret Thatcher by the Tories, and, in the same vein, how the same beholding eye can be blinded to less desirable aspects of situation or people, such as the protagonist’s rose-tinted view of the Feddens’ world in his eagerness to be included within it. 

The context of the story is interesting; an inside perspective from an outsider’s point of view of the mid-80s Conservative-dominated political bubble with an emphasis on the excesses of money and power, sex and drugs.  There was a pervasive sense of pretension, everyone on their guard to be something more than they were to fit in and progress into an elusive inner sanctum.  But, heaven forbid, you step outside the acceptable, the cold shoulders would exclude you from favour to prevent contamination by association.  This is literally represented in the seeming acceptance of the protagonist’s homosexuality until the AIDS epidemic becomes apparent and then he is ousted from favour to save the reputation of the family.

I found this story an interesting view of the willingness of people to belong, especially when power, sex or perceived glamour is the prize of acceptance.  1980s Britain was of course a volatile time and Hollinghurst’s novel explores a rather unpleasant world with the outward appearance of beauty with a balance that does not reject or accept any particular point of view, thereby allowing the reader to reflect on the judgements that we ourselves make and the way we behave in order to negotiate our own path within the subjective world in which we live.