Mundane thoughts prattled out
A novel leaves Efadul Huq unimpressed
Maybe The Line Of Beauty is not an appropriate title for this book. Maybe 'The Line Of Ennui' would make a better substitute. There isn't one aspect of the book which can be discussed, enviously, and yet it's the 2004 Man Booker Prize winner the deceptive praise that lures readers into the trap of purchasing this book. The nucleus of the novel is Nicholas Guest, who lives up to his name by being a guest at his friend Toby's swanky family house. Guest is an Oxford graduate who comes from a middle class family of an antique dealer and struggles to discover his sexual and social identity. This being the conflict of the novel, the arid pages roll on. The shallowness of the novel does not allow the conflict to become entertaining. Guest reads a lot of Henry James and looks after Toby's sister Catherine. He also indulges in delightful flights of fancy, that is, lusting after nearly every man he comes across. Fortunately, some of his dreams do come true through Leo, the black council worker from a religious background. and Wani, the rich, spoilt, cocaine and porn addicted, AIDS ravaged man. Be not offended. Of course, there is the popular cocaine culture, outbreak of AIDS and turbulent politics. After all, it's the 1980s! Toby's father, Gerald, is heavily involved in English politics. Surprisingly, Gerald appears to be a second-hand character collected from newspaper cuttings and clippings and as predictable as our politicians. Furthermore, the female characters are in a worse state than even the hand-me-down character sketch of Gerald. Catherine and Rachel are so thinly portrayed that they become invisible sometimes and when they appear, they seem unconnected like two unnecessary trash pieces populating the novel! This novel is more of an excuse for Alan Hollinghurst to prattle out mundane thoughts about the world. There are innumerable descriptions of how a character thinks he might react to something that has just been said, but decides not to, and why he decides not to, and how his unresponsiveness might affect the speaker differently to how he would be affected if he had actually said what he nearly said but didn't. This say-or-no-say deal would not really be annoying if what they wanted to say or did not say were interesting. But it is not. For example, at one point 'pansy salad' becomes the euphemistic term for homosexuality and a group of men wink, wink, nudge, nudge and talk about homosexuality on those terms. One renames it as 'butch lettuce' and another says everyone should try 'pansy salad' at least once. The others have their individual thoughts as well. What imagination! The incident may sound cheesy because of this review's swiftness, but, trust me, Hollinghurst makes it too long to sustain the humour. Hollinghurst's character assassinations are so sophisticated that for the judges of Booker Prize, they became beautiful murders. If a hundred pages fled from the middle, you definitely would not know the difference Guest will remain the not-so-heroic hero. Don't buy and trudge through this swampy book unless you are a fan of the 1980s and want to read every piece of work that mentions the era. The best use of The Line Of Beauty' would be to gift it to an insomniac friend who bothers you by calling late at night! Efadul Huq is a regular reviewer of books.
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