swimming pool library Alan Hollinghurst

Yes, Hollinghurst's style is incredibly dense and his descriptions are vivid, his prose flows and trickles and sparkles like a virgin spring whereas its protagonist doesn't do much else apart from shagging, and then shagging again, and then shagging yet someone else. The book is a typical example of style over content and, even as a gay man, I found it tedious and monotonous beyond belief. Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against shagging and I'm not the greatest of romantics, but if everything is only reduced to the physical side (and indeed there is no mention of anything resembling "Love" in the book as far as I remember), it all becomes a bit repetitive and terminally dull. It's like in real life - sex is great, but there's only so much one can do. I must be getting older (and probably wiser), but these days, I care much more with whom I'm doing it.