Among the Toffs
Jul. 26th, 2015 11:51 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mtvesselDec 2014
The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst - Picador, 2005 (Kindle edition)
* * * *
For the English, the Conservative Party is the political equivalent of comfort food. We know it's bad for the country in the long run, but it is a known quantity and it offers tasty things like tax cuts. So as we enter another period of Tory hegemony, it seems an appropriate time to review a book set during the last one, if only to remember what we have let ourselves in for.
The title has several meanings. It is Hogarth's description of the ogee, the double curve arch introduced from the Arab world. For the gay protagonist, Nick Guest, it represents the shape of a man's back and buttocks. And it refers to the cocaine frequently snorted by some of the main characters, much to their detriment, and somewhat to the book's.
Nick is a middle class aesthete who, thanks to the social mixing of Oxford, has found himself in upper class company. He has become friends and a lodger with the Faddens, a filthy rich family where the father, Gerald, is a newly hatched Tory MP, the mother Rachel is a socialite, the son Toby (whom Nick fancies, hopelessly) is a wannabe journalist and the daughter Kat is suffering from bipolar disorder. They live in a well-appointed London townhouse, holiday in the Dourdogne, and go to parties at stately homes. Nick, despite his deviant sexuality, is tolerated, even welcomed. For a lover of beauty among beautiful things, it is a dream. But for how long will it last?
The plot, such as it is, consists of an endless round of parties and other get-togethers where Nick can make his ironic, Jamesian aperçus about life among the toffs, interspersed with depictions of the hedonistic 80s gay subculture and the occasional sex scene. The interest of the book lies primarily in the characters and their mannered, layered dialogue. Nick's appreciation of beauty makes him quite a sympathetic protagonist and his obvious interest in the Feddens and their friends transmits itself to the reader, even if his liking for them does not.
The consequences of hedonism are heavily foregrounded in the later sections of the novel - AIDS makes an inevitable appearance, as, rather more tediously, does cocaine addiction. But I think the chief problem is Nick's utter passivity. He is for the most part an observer rather than a doer, which is great for observational portraits but not a good trait in a protagonist. As a result the book seems to meander along to its predictable ending and doesn’t have anything particularly profound to say because the viewpoint character cannot say it. Nonetheless, as a lightly satirical portrait of the relationship between the upper classes and the Tory party, it works. And it is good to be reminded of what being governed by the rich and privileged is actually like, so that we may all grow tired of it the sooner.
The Line of Beauty - Alan Hollinghurst - Picador, 2005 (Kindle edition)
* * * *
For the English, the Conservative Party is the political equivalent of comfort food. We know it's bad for the country in the long run, but it is a known quantity and it offers tasty things like tax cuts. So as we enter another period of Tory hegemony, it seems an appropriate time to review a book set during the last one, if only to remember what we have let ourselves in for.
The title has several meanings. It is Hogarth's description of the ogee, the double curve arch introduced from the Arab world. For the gay protagonist, Nick Guest, it represents the shape of a man's back and buttocks. And it refers to the cocaine frequently snorted by some of the main characters, much to their detriment, and somewhat to the book's.
Nick is a middle class aesthete who, thanks to the social mixing of Oxford, has found himself in upper class company. He has become friends and a lodger with the Faddens, a filthy rich family where the father, Gerald, is a newly hatched Tory MP, the mother Rachel is a socialite, the son Toby (whom Nick fancies, hopelessly) is a wannabe journalist and the daughter Kat is suffering from bipolar disorder. They live in a well-appointed London townhouse, holiday in the Dourdogne, and go to parties at stately homes. Nick, despite his deviant sexuality, is tolerated, even welcomed. For a lover of beauty among beautiful things, it is a dream. But for how long will it last?
The plot, such as it is, consists of an endless round of parties and other get-togethers where Nick can make his ironic, Jamesian aperçus about life among the toffs, interspersed with depictions of the hedonistic 80s gay subculture and the occasional sex scene. The interest of the book lies primarily in the characters and their mannered, layered dialogue. Nick's appreciation of beauty makes him quite a sympathetic protagonist and his obvious interest in the Feddens and their friends transmits itself to the reader, even if his liking for them does not.
The consequences of hedonism are heavily foregrounded in the later sections of the novel - AIDS makes an inevitable appearance, as, rather more tediously, does cocaine addiction. But I think the chief problem is Nick's utter passivity. He is for the most part an observer rather than a doer, which is great for observational portraits but not a good trait in a protagonist. As a result the book seems to meander along to its predictable ending and doesn’t have anything particularly profound to say because the viewpoint character cannot say it. Nonetheless, as a lightly satirical portrait of the relationship between the upper classes and the Tory party, it works. And it is good to be reminded of what being governed by the rich and privileged is actually like, so that we may all grow tired of it the sooner.