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The Spell
 
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The Spell (Paperback)

by Alan Hollinghurst (Author)
3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Frequently Bought Together

The Spell + The Folding Star + The Swimming-pool Library
Price For All Three: £18.97

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Product details

  • Paperback: 272 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (2 Mar 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0099276941
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099276944
  • Product Dimensions: 20.1 x 12.9 x 2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (22 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 29,964 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #3 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > H > Hollinghurst, Alan
    #9 in  Books > Fiction > Gay & Lesbian > Fiction General > Gay
    #42 in  Books > Gay & Lesbian > Literature

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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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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

The Spell
66% buy the item featured on this page:
The Spell 3.1 out of 5 stars (22)
£5.99
The Swimming-pool Library
10% buy
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The Folding Star
9% buy
The Folding Star 4.1 out of 5 stars (8)
£6.99
The Line of Beauty
8% buy
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Customer Reviews

22 Reviews
5 star:
 (6)
4 star:
 (2)
3 star:
 (7)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (5)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.1 out of 5 stars (22 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Well-written and funny - couldn't put it down, 22 Nov 1999
"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.

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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars G.R.E.A.T., 3 Dec 2000
By A Customer
Well, all I'm going to say is that this book is great. Being only 17 at the time I read it, I was a little unsure about the postives of gay life in general. But this book, as well as having a great story shone a light on the best things of being gay and being on the scene. Without sounding too cheesy, this book changed my life. I urge all you young people out there to buy it.
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8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars It simply doe not ring true, 9 May 2005
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 scene. Throughout my reading, I had the feeling that the author kept on falling short of the themes he approached: relationships, love, trust, betrayal, ageing... It sipmply does not ring true, it does not reach that fundamental point that allows us to say that this novel will be read in a hundred years' time. In spite of all this, I will give The Folding Star a try.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars 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 10 months ago by Philip N. Larmett

3.0 out of 5 stars 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 12 months ago by Peterbear

3.0 out of 5 stars 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 7 May 2007 by Aliena

3.0 out of 5 stars Four men's lives interweave in a comical social drama
I am about 3/4 through this book and it's proving to be a lively light read. There is no clear plot, each chapter varying in which character's perspective it is told from. Read more
Published on 29 Mar 2007 by L. Eden

3.0 out of 5 stars 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

3.0 out of 5 stars 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

5.0 out of 5 stars 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

4.0 out of 5 stars 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

3.0 out of 5 stars Well written but unfulfilling
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. Read more
Published on 25 Aug 2001

5.0 out of 5 stars I Just Loved it!
Oh,give me a Spell where I could find true Love search painted breezily like the flight of a dove Poor Alex who loves and cannot find other than hysterical Justins,rent-boys and... Read more
Published on 21 Mar 2001 by Ventura Angelo

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