Temporal Reviews: The Swimming-Pool Library

The Swimming-Pool Library is British author Alan Hollinghurt's first novel. He has achieved more fame this year due to his winning the Booker. I very much like Hollinghurst's prose style...it's very elegant, yet still passionate. There is also a rawness to the experiences Hollinghurst describes.

In this novel, we are introduced to William Beckwith, an effete aristocrat who leads a rather meaningless life, having random sex and only engaging in aesthetic pursuits and studies when the mood strikes. Through chance, he is introduced to Lord Nantwich, who entreats our young Beckwith to sort through his old journals and write a biography.

We learn about Nantwich's life in Africa during colonization, but Nantwich, a notorious homosexual, left behind only vaguely coded diaries and journal entries. The facts of gay life in the early 20th century, in which Beckwith would be most interested, are only suggested by the diaries.

Unfortunately, there is a "twist" at the end. This twist did not, for this reader, provide the payoff that Hollinghurst clearly intended. Not enough to not recommend the book, but it did distract.