Reviews

• ゲイに限定されないイギリス文芸の新潮流。

  ゲイノベル、ゲイ文芸というと、その内容・テーマ・メッセージから、自然と読者がゲイに限定されてしまうものですが、アラン・ホリングハーストの「スィミングプールライブラリー」は「一ゲイ小説」としてではなく、「一小説」として読者を引き込む大作であり怪作であると思います。 この作品は「ペダンティックで読んでいられない！」という批判もある一方で、知的でセクシーな文体は十分に魅力的です。主人公ウィリアム・ベクウィスはくだけた性格ではあるが、貴族でありオックスフォード卒でもあり、気取りや自分なりの哲学（ゲイ哲学？）を持っていて下品ではない。そこが鼻持ちならないと感じさせてしまう所でもあるのですが。そしてもう一人の主要人物・老貴族のナントウィッチ卿もなかなか愉快です。ウィリアムはナントウィッチから自伝の執筆依頼を持ちかけられ彼の古い日記を読むことになるが、その日記により1910年代のパブリックスクール、そして20年代のアフリカに時間をさかのぼるのが、面白い効果を生んでいます。 本作品はゲイとしての誇りをひそかに漂わせている一方で、エイズに揺れる前のイギリスゲイ社会への追憶の記録でもあり、なかなかメッセージ性の深く、それがこの作品の文学的価値を高めていると言えます。

• Alan Hollinghurst écrit bien, incontestablement, dans un style soigné et littéraire. Le problème, c'est que l'omniprésence du sexe / de l'homosexualité dans le roman exaspère assez vite (c'est également vrai pour 'The Spell' et 'The Folding Star'). Dans 'The Swimmingpool Library', William - le narrateur - est un jeune homme riche, beau, intelligent - et gay - qui mène une vie de loisirs (culture, sport et sexe). Un jour, il sauve la vie d'un vieil homme faisant une attaque dans des toilettes publiques, lieu de rendez-vous pour sexe facile entre hommes. L'homme, un vieux lord - homosexuel bien sûr ,- lui propose de devenir son biographe... L'omniprésence du sexe fait qu'on en oublie les aspects plus profonds du roman, pourtant bien présents. L'autre aspect négatif du roman a été pour moi son narrateur antipathique: un jeune riche 'pourri gâté', narcissique, suffisant, condescendant et poseur intellectuel. 'The Swimmingpool Library' est mon 5ème livre par Hollinghurst, pas le meilleur selon moi. Les deux que je recommanderais sont 'The Line of Beauty' et 'The Stranger's Child'.

• In Alan Hollinghurst's debut novel, The Swimming-Pool Library, Will, a promiscuous, self-absorbed layabout, finds his upper-class world both shaken and stirred after he saves the life of an elderly gay aristocrat in a public lavatory. Both grateful, and believing his life story to be one worthy of a written biography, Lord Nantwich asks that Will assume authorship of his project. Refusing to make a commitment, Will agrees to research Nantwich's life through the man's diaries and many years worth of letters, and then come to a decison. As the 25-year old's friendship with the elder man develops, Will finds it difficult to concentrate much on research; he's much too busy cruising the showers at the clubby gym where he swims, partying with best (and only?) friend, James, picking up various young men (emphasis on the "young") around town and chumming around with his preternaturally mature 6-year old nephew, Rupert, a character who is not only endearing but exceedingly wise and sophisticated. Meanwhile, Will's teenage black boyfriend, Arthur, a recent refugee from the drug-related violence of public housing, has disappeared without a trace so that's one more thing occupying Will's mind, if not his time. Set in the pre-AIDS London of the early 80's, The Swimming-Pool Library vividly depicts the free-spirited camaraderie of openly gay men (particularly the relationship between Lord Nantwich and Will) while examining issues pertaining to class, racism, police entrapment and homophobia, all presented with an edgy urgency that pulls the reader further into the tale Alan Hollinghurst so skillfully weaves. There is a lot of (often explicit) sex going on in The Swimming-Pool Library but the book never feels exploitative or smutty; indeed, it is sins of the distant past that cause the novel's protagonists to question their place in the world, and to re-examine themselves and their privileged lifestyles. I first read Alan Hollinghurst's The Line of Beauty several years ago and immediately found myself admiring the quality of his writing and storytelling. I find that I enjoyed The Swimming-Pool Library at least as much, if not more. My familiarity with the world portrayed in both novels, and of the wonderful characters inhabiting this world only enhances my appreciation for his work: reading his books gives me a genuine sense of a place and time when I was, for better and for worse, a lot like the young men he writes about. I highly recommend The Swimming-Pool Library as a precursor to The Line of Beauty, both of which are among my favorite works of modern fiction.

• Not every character is likeable, in fact very few are, but they're all interesting. It's also very honest in that most people, especially attractive, white, rich and young will be ar*eholes. Like 'The Line of Beauty' this is more a collection of things that happen to the characters and explores how they deal with them and develop than it is one ongoing storyline. It reminded me of 'Catcher in the Rye' although I enjoyed this much, much more. Not only is it more adult, I enjoyed reading the different types of homosexuals who, although in a different time period and class, all remind me of people I know and even at times myself.

• This is one of the best books I've read - so well written. It depicts what goes on inside the heads of people who frequent gyms and swimming pools. There were a few words I should have looked up in the dictionary, but was too lazy to bother with. The use of such words could have been annoying but wasn't - it told me the author was making the effort to raise his writing above that of the general crowd. Well done.

• This is an amazing story told in a very unusual way with humour and pathos as well as intrigue. Alan Hollinghurst is an amazing story teller

Purchase links