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The Line of Beauty

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The Line of Beauty

By: Alan Hollinghurst
Narrated by: Alex Jennings
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About this listen

Winner of the Man Booker Prize, The Line of Beauty is a classic novel about class, politics and sexuality in Margaret Thatcher's 1980s Britain.

There was the soft glare of the flash – twice – three times – a gleaming sense of occasion, the gleam floating in the eye as a blot of shadow, his heart running fast with no particular need of courage as he grinned and said, 'Prime Minister, would you like to dance?'

In the summer of 1983, twenty-year-old Nick Guest moves into an attic room in the Notting Hill home of the wealthy Feddens: Gerald, an ambitious Tory MP, his wife Rachel and their children Toby and Catherine. Innocent of politics and money, Nick is swept up into the Feddens' world and an era of endless possibility, all the while pursuing his own private obsession with beauty.

The Line of Beauty is Alan Hollinghurst's Man Booker Prize-winning masterpiece. It is a novel that defines a decade, exploring with peerless style a young man's collision with his own desires, and with a world he can never truly belong to.

©2018 Alan Hollinghurst (P)2018 Macmillan Digital Audio Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction Literature & Fiction Romance Satire Heartfelt Witty

The Pride List of Queer Storytelling

To mark Pride 2023 Audible teamed up with non-profit organisation, Out on the Page, supporter and champion of LGBTQIA+ writers and writing, to release an extensive Pride List of Queer Storytelling. Featuring contributions from some of the UK’s most important and exciting voices from the LGBTQIA+ community, this audiobook is one of the many featured on the list that is available to listen to on Audible.
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On reflection, I enjoyed listening to this. The narration was excellent - just the right sardonic time for the times. The writing is very beautiful too. The story moves slowly, but everything falls into place at the end, which is satisfying. But there is just too much explicit description of sex... it seems on every page. I do understand that this is an important theme... and I’m no prude, or I wouldn’t have chosen this book at all... but too much detail and too frequently just gets really tedious. If it was a paper book, I’d just skip those sections, but more difficult with audio.

Excellent prose - but do we really need all that detail?

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It's not an easy listen, but worth getting to the end. It's well narrated. The book moves well at the start. You get into the characters and the situations. The writer establishes the 80s well without being descriptive. But about two thirds into the book, it completely loses it's way and becomes dull. Not much happens for a while, and I was tempted to give up, but was glad I listened to the end. The book stayed on my mind for weeks after.

Possible spoiler.
At the start I expected to like Nick and feel sorry for him. He doesn't really do a lot. He just explores his sensuality. I felt kinship with him not being wealthy. But at the end I hated him. He's nothing but a leech, and an observer. Very polite. Almost a sycophant, but too boring. He just has nothing to him and no feeling or passion, and is extremely selfish. Perhaps a narcissist? Difficult to put my finger on it. He just watches really and tags along, and never really contributes. Interesting.

Challenging but worth it

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Well crafted story from a good author. Very good reader. Enjoyable commentary on the 80's.

Holds your attention

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If you want to understand the political landscape of 1980s Britain, this is the novel. If you want to understand the history behind the current media morality panic about trans people, this is the novel. If you want to understand our current government, this is the novel.

excellent writing and urgent listening

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I really enjoyed the storytelling and characters but didn’t finish the book. Maybe I need to go back to it. I just couldn’t get myself into the story and got a little lost about half way through.

Didn’t finish

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