THE LINE OF BEAUTY: There are no angels and this is not America

Call it the British “Angels in America” minus the angels, but Alan Hollinghurst’s “The Line of Beauty” can stand on its own, even when compared to Tony Kushner’s brilliant play. Both works share a lot in common: they are set in the 80s when the world was changing in a strange way, AIDS has just become the issue, and both have its country politcs in the background (USA: Ronald Regan; UK: Margaret Tatcher).

The 2004 MAN Booker Prize winner is a novel that takes a little time to grabs one attention — but once it does so, it is hard to put it down. It covers a couple of years in the lives of a group of people, all related to Nick Guest, young man who has moved to the elegant house in Notting Hill that belongs to the parents of one of his best friends. This family sort of becomes his second family.

But Nick is never really connected to the Feddens, for many reasons. One of them is that they are wealthy and futile, whereas he is not. Another one is the fact they never really deal with his homosexuality. They seem to cope that but never accept it. But politics in England in the 80s play such a major role in the narrative the homosexuality has a supporting part sometimes.

The book focus on is the climate of giddy success among well-to-do Tories between the electoral victories of 1983 and 1987. The patriarch Gerald Fedden has just entered Parliament and wants to fulfill another political ambition: to host the PM at home for a party. Eventually when it happens Hollinghurst delivers some of the best pages of social and cultural delight and critic of his novel. For pages and pages he teases his reader in the best possible way, announcing that something big will happen — but one can never be aware of what will happen. One critic has wisely compared the appearance of “The Lady” to the presence of Kurtz in ”Heart of Darkness,” who both are invisible until near the end.

Hollinghurst has a special obsession for beauty and its forms — and this is totally explicit in the title of the book. But his prose also has its own beauty. The writer’s choose of words is remarkable, as well as the way he builds his sentences. At the same time, Hollighurst gambles with another of his main themes: Henry James. Nick is working on a thesis about this writer, which turns out to be a good excuse to inject some Jamesian comments throughout the narrative.

Many readers maybe shocked with the honesty that sexuality is dealt with. This concern only enhances the experience of reading the narrative. Nick’s sexually naivety and awakening is believable and never gratuitous. And all the characters have enough personality and humanity to fill a whole book on them.

Hollinghurst won a deserved Booker Prize with his novel, which has much more consistence and smartness than last year’s “Vernon God Little”. Giving the Prize to “The Line of Beauty” brings back the hope that it is indeed a literary prize and not just a fashion contest.

Originalmente publicado em www.Amazon.com em 08/12/05