"If a homosexual author should come anywhere near the [Man Booker] short-list, someone will make sure he gets no further on the grounds of friviloity, or narrowness of experience. ('I thought the women were just unconvincing.')"*
This particular piece of idiocy, written by critic Phillip Hensher, appeared in a preview of the prize in The Independent a day before Alan Hollinghurst was announced winner. Someone might have told him that gay writer Paul Bailey has been shortlisted twice. And what is there about gay that makes your experience of life "narrow"? Presumably he's saying that a gay writer cannot produce a book which appeals to a hetrosexual audience. Well , he's wrong, and if we needed further evidence of it Hollinghurst's In The Line of Beauty more than adequately provides it.
Set against the backdrop of the 1980's, the "Thatcher Years" of boom and bust, the novel tells the story of a Nick Guest. Fresh from Oxford, he goes to live with the Fedden family in their grand house in London as a friend of "the children". (Gerald Fedden is a conservative MP, a rising star in Thatcher's government.) Nick is a born free-loader and social climber with an appetite for sex and cocaine and the finer things of life. Nick's sexual relationships begin with Leo, a working-class black man. Later, he becomes involved with Wani a beautiful millionaire of Lebanese extraction.
The novel is very much a comedy of manners, elegantly written and substantial. It has an "old-fashioned" feel to it (Do I detect the influence of Henry James?). It explores the social values of the period, particularly towards homosexuality and social class. And it's very carefully observed and funny.
There is a lot of sex in the book - and graphically described, though never gratuitious. (Hollinghurst is one the gifted minority of writers - homosexual or not - who actually writes sex well.) But this being the '80's, the shadow of AIDS hangs over the novel.
The characters (of both sexes!) are wonderfully realised. I felt a lot of sympathy with Nick - enjoyed his subversiveness, especially in the scene when he dances (high on coke) with Thatcher at the Fedden's wedding anniversary celebration. Many of the scenes take place during social occasions (often the kind of parties the likes of you and I would never get invited to!) and Hollinghurst ably juggles a large cast of characters on stage at the same time.
Yep, Hollinghurst deserved the prize for sure.
*Ouch! Didn't realise tat the time of posting that this article was actually supposed to be ironic!
2 comments:
Gosh, I'm surprised to read that, as well. An more so as Philip Hensher himself is openly gay. Most of his works do not really have any obvious gay theme, but he has written a few stories with gay characters - short stories, and one very interesting one of a Parliament member who is married and having an affair with a rent boy, who he later kills. Not sure of the title, Kitchen Venom, I think?
Did not realise that Philip Hensher was gay ... guess this puts a new spin on the quote (which I took from a very tongue-in-cheek article in The Times about stupid things people had said over the last year. perhaps he has had these kinds of comments hurled at him in the past and was simply being sarcastic???
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