∎ [PDF] The Stranger Child Alan Hollinghurst 9780330483247 Books

The Stranger Child Alan Hollinghurst 9780330483247 Books

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The Stranger Child Alan Hollinghurst 9780330483247 Books

The same friend who encouraged me to read Hollinghusrt's 'The Line of Beauty' also referred me to this latest effort 'The Stranger's Child'. A fair amount of time passed between reading each book. However, I recall well the attention to detail and elegance of prose associated with the author's style in the first book. Like 'The Line of Beauty', it took me a while to get into the rhythm of the narrative of 'The Stranger's Child'. However, with the second book it took considerably longer.

Set in Edwardian England the story begins with the exploration of class, privilege and sexuality associated with that period of time. This is done largely through the character of one Cecil Valance, an erstwhile poet who gains posthumous notoriety for a poem called 'Two Acres'. The missive is read by Winston Churchill and becomes part of the collective consciousness of a later era. As such, scholars begin to delve deeper into the life of the poet who now lies in repose, likeness reproduced in marble, covering his crypt in a chapel on what was once the family estate.

Over time, the estate becomes a school and characters central to the story are introduced as the time line advances. Relationships are intertwined as scholarly research uncovers affairs, paternity questions, sexual orientation and a host of unresolved issues.

'The Stranger's Child' is not an easy read. Its attention to detail, while important stylistically, tends to become first a bit ponderous, then, boring. I found myself doing a lot of skimming without really missing much of the story line. As the story progresses though decades this reader found it difficult to follow the narrative thread that neatly ties an enjoyable story together.


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The Stranger Child Alan Hollinghurst 9780330483247 Books Reviews

I'm not sure what to think of this book. It's beautifully written, filled with wonderful little observations about the way people speak and comport themselves; unfortunately, the writing is not paired with a sufficiently interesting story.

It starts out good, with tantalizing hints of a forbidden same-sex relationship, but -- for an Alan Hollinghurst novel -- the relationship isn't explored deeply or explicitly enough. Still, I kept with the book through its time changes, and after about 150 pages I became more absorbed and was glad I'd stuck with it. I enjoyed the middle section the most, set in the late 1960s, because it focused on a budding romance between two appealing gay men and had a nice "comedy of manners" feel. But from there things went downhill; most of the last 150 pages consists of someone conducting interviews with various people for a biography. There is no sense of narrative propulsion, just one plodding interview after another. And because the biographer is trying to solve a mystery that we, the readers, already know the answer to, there is no suspense, either. I know "plot" isn't really the point of this book, that Hollinghurst is trying to say big things about 20th century Britain, the art of biography, homosexuality, the class system, and so on. But there needs to be a good story to keep you reading, and there isn't enough of one.

At least there is the writing to fall back on. The descriptions of a middle-aged woman playing the piano and an elderly woman writing out a check at the bank are little gems, and there are plenty of nice social observations. Yet the book is at times over-written. At certain points I wanted Hollinghurst to stop describing the hidden shades of meaning in what a character was saying and to just get on with it already.

(Also, he uses the word "mischievous" way too much.)

The book doesn't exactly fly by, so if you're in a hurry, look for something else. But if you don't care so much about plot and are in the mood to slow down and enjoy some fine writing, this might work for you.
In "The Wizard of Oz," Dorothy, perplexed by the sudden appearances and disappearances of characters into thin air, exclaims (I paraphrase) "Gosh. People come and go so quickly here!" Dorothy, honey, wait until you read "The Stranger's Child." You ain't seen nothing yet.

As other reviewers have indicated, this tale begins in England before the first World War and continues through, in disconnected segments, to the present day. The main characters, Daphne, her brother George, and his lover Cecil (who makes a pass at Daphne -- don't ask) are at the crux of the beginning sequence, and spawn, as it were, the various other characters in the sequences and decades to come.

One could say that the novel attempts a panoramic scope of England's class system and sexual repressions through many decades, and that the novel therefore needs the series of scenarios and multiple characters, in the style of a classic Russian novel. But must we be subjected to numerous irrelevant characters and banal, sometimes obscure, situations that are fleetingly amusing, at best, and add nothing to the thrust of the novel?

I have so enjoyed previous Hollinghurst books. "The Swimming Pool Library" was unforgettable modern literature. But where was the editor for this enterprise? Sleeping in a field of poppies?
The same friend who encouraged me to read Hollinghusrt's 'The Line of Beauty' also referred me to this latest effort 'The Stranger's Child'. A fair amount of time passed between reading each book. However, I recall well the attention to detail and elegance of prose associated with the author's style in the first book. Like 'The Line of Beauty', it took me a while to get into the rhythm of the narrative of 'The Stranger's Child'. However, with the second book it took considerably longer.

Set in Edwardian England the story begins with the exploration of class, privilege and sexuality associated with that period of time. This is done largely through the character of one Cecil Valance, an erstwhile poet who gains posthumous notoriety for a poem called 'Two Acres'. The missive is read by Winston Churchill and becomes part of the collective consciousness of a later era. As such, scholars begin to delve deeper into the life of the poet who now lies in repose, likeness reproduced in marble, covering his crypt in a chapel on what was once the family estate.

Over time, the estate becomes a school and characters central to the story are introduced as the time line advances. Relationships are intertwined as scholarly research uncovers affairs, paternity questions, sexual orientation and a host of unresolved issues.

'The Stranger's Child' is not an easy read. Its attention to detail, while important stylistically, tends to become first a bit ponderous, then, boring. I found myself doing a lot of skimming without really missing much of the story line. As the story progresses though decades this reader found it difficult to follow the narrative thread that neatly ties an enjoyable story together.