My summary of The Line of Beauty, by Allan Hollinghurst:
“Oh … ” Nick said.
“Oh … !” Nick said.
“Oh …” Nick said, this time with a moue of irony.
As I neared the end of the novel, and as I watched Nick say “Oh … ” for the one-thousandth time, I finally grew weary. The meticulously annotated conversations, the microscopic level of descriptive detail, the suffocating presence of irony, ironies and ironic facial expressions and situations finally wore thin. That said, the first two-thirds of the novel are fantastic. If the gay sex in The Emperor’s Children wasn’t explicit enough for you, then The Line of Beauty is the book for you.
