The Sparsholt Affair

[Riobard]

If you are familiar with Brit Alan Hollinghurst's work and Booker Prizewinner status, you may know his latest novel TSA. He is a kind of unofficial Violet Quill member from across the pond. 

Semi-spoiler alert warning:

------

His version of a gay-for-pay long-game scene, more literary than pornographic, yet extremely erotic. Set in one of the historical timeframes and settings of the book. I really enjoyed it and I am going to try to revive it by finding just the right photo image(s) for me to fantasize and, well, you know ...

[Lucky]

I read The Sparsholt Affair and am struggling to relate your post to my recollection. Are you referring to the novel as a whole or to one of the periods of the novel?

[Riobard]

Opener ... Freddie's narrative.

[Lucky]

Which leads to the question- how did you like the novel as a whole? I reviewed it:

There is an element of disappointment in my reaction to The Sparsholt Affair.In my mind, the author did not bite off enough. He seems to have held back on the story, especially n the Sparsholt affair itself. At times the novel is captivating, at times quite dull. There are small points where it is confusing. I liked the beginning, where David Sparsholt is admired at Oxford. The tale goes on less convincingly. It hardly seems right that the father would not talk to the son about personal matters. So much communication did not happen. The lesbians seemed forced into the story. Daughter Lucy added nothing. Evert Dax and his cronies were both intriguing and boring,  just not at the same time! Finally, son Johnny is left to shoulder the story. We hear that he married, but that section of his life is not in the story. Could not father and son bond at Johnny's loss of his husband? Why didn't they? We are left to feel that the subject of the Sparsholt Affair ended up cold and bitter. Not satisfying to me, but the author seems okay with it.

[Riobard]

Well, they are British [grin] but a lot of families everywhere are not that open. I am just halfway through, had other things occupying me, and I get eye strain at times that is less bothersome off paper. But I, too, liked Part 1 and got ahead of myself. Also working my way across a few other really long novels.

The father-son motifs do not mirror Elias-MrPerlman, that's for sure. Different strokes of inadequacies for different folks.

If memory serves me from previous works, Hollinghurst's style is to let the reader fill in the gaps while he time-travels with each subsequent section weaving in some of the characters from the previous. To me, it is a balance of plot and interesting on-point interior and internal characterizations. He varies sentence structure at times from the norm which stalls me a little, thwarting my bad habit of skimming. The impression given is a great deal of thoughtful deliberation.

The Dax homestead Cranley Gdns bordering Kensington and Earlscourt is just a few blocks east of where Villa Gianni house of boys now sits. My father was stationed in WW2 nearby the Fulham area where the art restoration shop is.

It does help to be a homosexual insider reading the book, as some things are not described on-the-nose.

[Riobard]

A really good clinical primer on family secrets and their consequences would be found in Ackerman Institute's Evan Imber Black's work. She covers a broad range of typical related themes that shape family dynamics.

[Riobard]

Correction: Elio  ... has all the letters Oliver has, wheras Elias is more in tune with the antiquities theme.

[Lucky]

It's reviewed in Sunday's NY Times book review:

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/04/books/review/alan-hollinghurst-sparsholt-affair.html?emc=edit_bk_20180504&nl=book-review&nl_art=&nlid=61144114edit_bk_20180504&ref=headline&te=1

“The source of the shadow moved slowly into view, a figure in a gleaming singlet, steadily lifting and lowering a pair of hand-weights.” At first, no one knows the young Adonis’s name, but his physique alone is enough to make one of the group, Evert Dax, fall madly in love with him."