aw2418's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
dutchtineke's review against another edition
4.0
Two thoughts I had while reading this book:
Isn't it extraordinary that the simple combining of a couple of words can create an entire mood, Zeitgeist or era. Alan Hollinghorst did just that in this book. I found it wonderful, just like Downton Abbey is able of doing just that (tv-series, I recommend!)
Also, at the end of the book: how one's life can be erased so completely, just by having nobody to remember you by and the destroying of the possessions you had in life. It felt like such a shame and total indiferrence of the people who did just that. It touched me and made me feel small. (Although I must admit I am afraid of death; not because of the process of dying, but of the fear of being gone, missing everything that will happen after my death. I get sick thinking about it. But that fear probably made me feel that part even more.)
Isn't it extraordinary that the simple combining of a couple of words can create an entire mood, Zeitgeist or era. Alan Hollinghorst did just that in this book. I found it wonderful, just like Downton Abbey is able of doing just that (tv-series, I recommend!)
Also, at the end of the book: how one's life can be erased so completely, just by having nobody to remember you by and the destroying of the possessions you had in life. It felt like such a shame and total indiferrence of the people who did just that. It touched me and made me feel small. (Although I must admit I am afraid of death; not because of the process of dying, but of the fear of being gone, missing everything that will happen after my death. I get sick thinking about it. But that fear probably made me feel that part even more.)
lisandra_toma's review
reflective
relaxing
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
frobishery's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Alcoholism, Homophobia, and Child abuse
harris39's review against another edition
2.0
Ugh. Just could not get into this one... Over 100 pages of very little/nothing happening was far too much for me!
ohnoflora's review against another edition
3.0
It's fine! It is absolutely nothing new. If you have read EM Forster, Evelyn Waugh, and at least one Mitford sister, you know what this book is. And if you want to read about literary legacy, class, scholarship, the futility of biography and the ultimate unknowability of people, read [b:Possession|41219|Possession|A.S. Byatt|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1391124124s/41219.jpg|2246190].
annaelisereads's review against another edition
3.0
A love (or lust) story revisited across generations, The Stranger's Child examines truth, reality, memory, and myth-making. The book starts with the love triangle in question and then checks in with the three (and adds some new ones) throughout the next 60 or so years. I liked the first two iterations, but as time elapsed, I got less and less interested in the story.
mmparker's review against another edition
2.0
A strange, melancholy book redeemed by some of the most nuanced descriptions of commonplace feelings I've ever read.
likecymbeline's review against another edition
4.0
I read [b:The Swimming-Pool Library|30106|The Swimming-Pool Library|Alan Hollinghurst|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388450054s/30106.jpg|2776591] last September (while I was training around Europe) and loved it and still think of it often (the prose more than the plot). I'm still looking to read [b:The Line of Beauty|139087|The Line of Beauty|Alan Hollinghurst|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1172099924s/139087.jpg|918312] and am sure I will soon, but for the time being I started on this one, not quite certain of what to expect. It affected me oddly--I was so frustrated by the way that social mores interfere with the biographer's ability to get the whole picture (I won't use the word 'truth'). It reminded me in so many ways of my own plight when conducting research on figures from the past who were forced to conceal their identity. The men I worked on were even faithful keepers-of-records a la Harry Hewitt in this novel, and yet still concealed a great deal in their letters to each other out of necessity. I know very well the difficulty of forming an accurate picture, and in this case it's especially frustrating for the reader because we know the things that actually happened, we read about them in the earlier parts.
The breaks between each part were wonderfully executed, as you attempted to figure out where the thread picked up from the previous section. There were such strong elements of Waugh and Forster running through it, and I found in some ways, especially in the middle parts, that it seemed like Hollinghurst was kind of re-writing a Forster novel, pursuing things past the end and on into the spanning decades (those decades Forster ceased publishing in). I really enjoyed it, but the ending didn't go quite where I expected (though the ultimate disappointment was as masochistically satisfying as The Swimming-Pool Library).
The breaks between each part were wonderfully executed, as you attempted to figure out where the thread picked up from the previous section. There were such strong elements of Waugh and Forster running through it, and I found in some ways, especially in the middle parts, that it seemed like Hollinghurst was kind of re-writing a Forster novel, pursuing things past the end and on into the spanning decades (those decades Forster ceased publishing in). I really enjoyed it, but the ending didn't go quite where I expected (though the ultimate disappointment was as masochistically satisfying as The Swimming-Pool Library).