January 1990

Ho|linghurt's Swimming Pool Library

Th w" ' P L" r

by Alan Hollinghurst

Random House Publishing
by Hugh Coyle

There’s a saying in the publishing
world that everyone is the business has an
unfinished manuscript tucked away in the
bottom drawer of the desk, and this may
very well have been the case with Alan
Hollinghurst’s The Swimming Peel Li-
hgagy. His affiliation with the literary world
through his position on the editorial staff of
the Timee Literary Supplement might also
explain the high praise and heavy publicity
his book has been receiving.

To be fair, it should be said at the outset
that Hollinghurst’s novel is written with
gem—cutter precision and a true feel for
flair. The language is beautiful in the way
that a well-solved math problem can be
beautiful; it is technically correct with
enough researched information to lend
credence to the scheme of things. The prob-
lem is that beneath this glossy veneer of
technique, the story itself is not much more
than a glorified homoerotic fantasy, no
matter how high it aspirations.

Told in the first person, The Swim-
ming Peel Libragg concerns the exploits,
sexual and (though rarely) otherwise, of
one William Beckwith, a beautiful, popu-
lar, healthy, athletic, intelligent, and rich
young man with plenty of time on his hands

T and plenty of men on his mind. Will is
, descendant of Britain’s noble Beckwiths,
. and thus enjoys high social stature as well
. as unlimited funds. His favorite past-times

V

7

include checking out the latest newcomers
at the Corry Club, where he swims regu-

. Iarly, and making love to his latest con-
. quests, wherever and however possible.

Lest the reader sense that such pro-

. ceedings sound a trifle indulgent,
. Hollinghurst introduces the elements of an
. actual plot: Early on, our hero saves an
. elderly man who suffers a coronary in a

public lavatory. The victim of the attack,
bord Charles Nantwich, is another regular
at the Corry. After a series of rather dry
encounters, Beckwith is engaged by Lord
Nantwich to read through his old journals
and ghost-write his memoirs. In this man-
ner, Hollinghurst introduces an easy flip-
flopping structure to his novel and switches
between the exploits of the younger Char-
1%sNantwich as he heads off to the depths
Of Africa and the more daring exploits of
1116 young Will Beckwith as he explores the

L

darker side of modem—day London.

Though this may at first sound intrigu-
ing and exciting, it is not, and we read
Nantwich’s journals with the same sense of
boredom that Will initially brings to them.
To spice things up, there are other plot
elements in the novel, but they are clearly
subordinate. These subplots are hollow
and disconnected. It’s as though the author
couldn’tdecide what was mostimportantin
his own book, and when he fmally chose, he
went back to the manuscript and beefed up
what he imagined would be the more liter-
ary, more respectable plot line.

Will Beckwith himself is made to
seem respectable, despite his selfish appe-
tite for sex. Hollinghurst engineers the res-
cue of Lord Nantwich to win the readers

over to Will’s side, and later in the book,
Will leaves the set of a porn movie dis-
gusted by what he has stumbled across.
Such scenes are as subtle as cue cards in the
book, instructing the reader in his or her
judgements of the central characters. The
problem is that the reader is often given
contradictory messages. The ultimate
manipulation occurs when Hollinghurst
has Beckwith assaulted by a gang of skin-
heads; it’s either a blatant play for sympa-
thy or an attempt to remind us that the real
world does exist and can be a dangerous
place sometimes. The scene is as out of
place as a rape in Aliee in Wonderland, but
with little consequence: Will’s perfect
good looks are damaged only slightly and

(Continued on page 14)

/Stephen
&

Burns

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