THE SWIMMING-POOL LIBRARY

Sam West’s reading of this 1988 novel by Alan Hollinghurst, whose recent LINE OF BEAUTY won the Man Booker Prize, is delicate, artful, and beautifully modulated. The story takes place in the entirely male world of a young playboy aristocrat, Will Beckwith, who saves the life of elderly Lord Nantwich when the latter suffers a heart attack at their London sports club. Their two stories, which then become entwined, are relentlessly homoerotic; if Hollinghurst is holding back any graphic details, this reviewer can’t imagine what they could be. It’s an ambitious book with a complex structure and a shattering point to make, beautifully realized and performed, but the subject matter will not be for everyone, and would be seriously unsuitable for some audiences. B.G. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine [Published: FEB/ MAR 07]