The Spell
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Product Description
Amazon.co.uk Review
The Spell has found Alan Hollinghurst on the Guardian's Fiction Prize shortlist, and with good reason. His first two novels were mischievous, escapist things, toying with the delights of colonial buggery (The Swimming Pool Library) and underage Belgian boys (The Folding Star). In The Spell he's come of age, finally engaging with the issues of relationships, monogamy and aging that preoccupy the work of his peers.
Alex is an uptight 36-year-old Foreign Office man who suddenly falls for Danny, the 22- year-old son of his ex-lover's new lover (are you following this?) The infatuation with Danny is as much an infatuation with the ecstasy-fuelled nightlife to which Danny introduces him, and it's hardly a surprise when the relationship fizzles. But Alex is forced into confronting his desires and the novel ends leaving him unsure but at least taking stock and looking forward. The story veers wildly between an intoxicating London and a windswept, traditional Wessex, as if Hollinghurst can't yet reconcile true rural Englishness with the possibilities afforded by cosmopolitan queer London. But there's an honesty here that's welcome after the (admittedly arousing) archness of his earlier work, and a real sense of facing up to life's bigger questions. --Alan Stewart, Amazon
Review
'The Spell contains the most delicately sensuous portrait-painting...brilliant imagery...and hilarious cross-purpose jokes... Sentence by sentence the novel weaves its magic' - Independent. 'Alex is 36, something in the Foreign Office, discreetly gay...his ex-lover Justin invites him to a weekend in the Dorset village of Litton Gambril with his new boyfriend, forty-something architect Robin, and Robin's twenty-two-year-old gay son, Danny. Then Alex drops a tab of ecstasy, provided by young Danny, and embarks on a bewildering voyage of self-discovery in a drug-fuelled London club scene... A masterpiece of sustained literary titillation' - The Times. 'Love, lust and loss among a group of middle-class gay Englishmen... Young and old, the town and the country, the wild and respectable: Holinghurst explores each of these uneasy conflicts with wit, generosity and sharply observed comedy' - Mail on Sunday. 'Comic fantasy is grounded in a wealth of sharp observation and psychological insight. Hollinghurst has lost none of his authority' - Evening Standard
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Well-written, but not as good as his earlier works. Rather vapid gay characters who seem not to have much of a life beyond sex, drugs and partying. I can't imagine much partying going on in a small village near the small town of Bridport and I am not convinced that a young man would be wearing a tank top in 1999, though I gather they made a comeback for a short time.
16 of 18 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
"The Spell" tells the story of four guys whose lives cross paths for various reasons, and how they evolve beyond the beguiling but ultimately false spell of eternal youth. "Growing up from I'm queer! to IKEA" could be the sub-title of the book if it were less subtle and more cliched. Instead, it is well-written, funny and not of the "his pecs glistened in the sunlight" American variety (though for fun it is liberally spiced with some "who shags who").
The spell is cast in the big-city gay scene with its pressure to conform, to be young and virile, and to "have fun!! commit to no-one!". But when do you stop worrying about whether you're "gay" enough, and having enough sex with enough guys, and learn to become happy just being yourself, whatever that may be?
If you've ever been something of a scene queen, especially in London, you'll probably know people like the characters in it. I certainly recognised a few! And some of the descriptions are so accurate they had me reliving some of my own similar experiences.
I thoroughly enjoyed this book.
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I read The Swimming Pool Library a few years back and really enjoyed it, and it seems to have the one thing that is missing from this book: a real story. It's very well written, you can believe that the characters might exist, and it's never really boring, but a)you don't feel any empathy with or sympathy for the characters, and b)the book doesn't go anywhere. It's as if you've read part of a diary that's still ongoing and when you get to the end, you feel that there should be some sort of proper conclusion, which there isn't.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
enchanting and sexy
Dont understand some of the more negative reviews . I picked this up from a charity shop and was hooked from the begining . Read more
Published 2 months ago by cartoon
Two notches above soft porn.
It's 2011 and I've been aware of Hollinghurst's fame since the late 1980s: I've just always been too busy with other things, or other books, to read one of his novels. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Skylark
Hollinghurst becomes predictable
I decided to buy this book from Amazon, along with the BBC Line of Beauty video, so as to complete my Hollinghurst collection. Read more
Published on 9 Sep 2008 by Philip N. Larmett
a mixture of humour and pathos
I have just finished reading this book which made me cry as well as laugh and irritated me too with its general shallowness. Read more
Published on 10 July 2008 by Peterbear
Rather uninteresting
I was recommended Hollinghurst's The Swimming Pool Library, but it was out at the library, so I grabbed this one instead. Read more
Published on 6 May 2007 by Aliena
Okay
It wasn't amazing, the plot was predictable and the characters weren't works of literary mastery, but it was readble. Read more
Published on 20 Mar 2007 by Ms. Claire F. Hassell
Cold
I have to say I wasn't impressed at all by this book. It turned out a real disappointment. The plot is thin and the story not that credible. Read more
Published on 18 Feb 2006
It simply doe not ring true
I must admit that I found it difficult to finish reading The Spell. Unlike other readers, I was not engaged neither by Hollinghusrt's prose style nor by his portrayal of London gay... Read more
Published on 9 May 2005 by "donaldmichael"
It changed my life
I'll leave you to guess how it did this - I was simply inspired to make a decision having recognised myself in one of the characters and the situation he faces. Read more
Published on 10 Jun 2004 by Tony Jackson
In pursuit of the younger man
A very funny book.! Alex a closet queen of 36 is invited down to a little Dorset Village by his ex (extremely camp) lover Justin to meet Justins new lover Robin! Read more
Published on 3 Feb 2003
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