Rating: 
Summary: Change Partners and Dance
Review: "The Spell" is an oddly static novel by the author of "The Swimming Pool Library. As in Hollinghurst's earlier work, "The Spell" is peopled with fully-fleshed characters whom we recognize from our own experience, but, this time out, they are given precious little to do. The plot, such as it is, concerns the matching and mismatching of four homosexual men, ranging in age from 22 to 49, with the youngest, Danny, being the biological son of the eldest, Robin, who is an architect that specializes in renovation. The novel is written from the omniscient point of view, with shy, doting Alex, the former lover of Justin (who now lives with Robin) and soon-to-be lover of Danny, providing the main narrative focus. Much of the action is set at Robin's country home, which is located in Hardy's Dorset, a backwater where minds are emphatically closed on the subject of homosexuality but which nonetheless provides the Arcadian backdrop for courtship and romance. Hollinghurst is working from an interesting palette--his principals pretty much run the gamut of gay "types"--but, for all his wit and erudition (Alex at one point finds himself in a dirty book store "amid the alien porn"--his characters and their amours fail to add up to anything more. Whereas "The Swimming Pool Library" explored the end of an era in British gay life, "The Spell" seems too worshipful of clubbing and of the drug culture to be instructive on either of those subjects. Read "The Spell" for its insights into the gay psyche, but don't expect any subtext.
Rating:
Summary: Change Partners and Dance
Review: "The Spell" is an oddly static novel by the author of "The Swimming Pool Library. As in Hollinghurst's earlier work, "The Spell" is peopled with fully-fleshed characters whom we recognize from our own experience, but, this time out, they are given precious little to do. The plot, such as it is, concerns the matching and mismatching of four homosexual men, ranging in age from 22 to 49, with the youngest, Danny, being the biological son of the eldest, Robin, who is an architect that specializes in renovation. The novel is written from the omniscient point of view, with shy, doting Alex, the former lover of Justin (who now lives with Robin) and soon-to-be lover of Danny, providing the main narrative focus. Much of the action is set at Robin's country home, which is located in Hardy's Dorset, a backwater where minds are emphatically closed on the subject of homosexuality but which nonetheless provides the Arcadian backdrop for courtship and romance. Hollinghurst is working from an interesting palette--his principals pretty much run the gamut of gay "types"--but, for all his wit and erudition (Alex at one point finds himself in a dirty book store "amid the alien porn"--his characters and their amours fail to add up to anything more. Whereas "The Swimming Pool Library" explored the end of an era in British gay life, "The Spell" seems too worshipful of clubbing and of the drug culture to be instructive on either of those subjects. Read "The Spell" for its insights into the gay psyche, but don't expect any subtext.
Rating:
Summary: Nice Portrait of Different Generations
Review: Alan Hollinghurst's The Spell is, first and foremost, wonderfully written. The author manages, for the most part, to effectively capture different generations (perhaps weakest on the youngest generation) far more than most writers in the gay field. I do not know that it was necessary for them all to be so specatular looking (or at least to their physical beauty to be referred to so often as a part of the narrative). It is the writing, though, that, in the end, will carry the reader through the lives of these four men as they examine and obscure their past, present and future. It is a pleasant read with a satisfying ending.
Rating:
Summary: Enchanting Gay Men
Review: Gaylife on the English countryside is like everywhere, you never know when your BF (boyfriend) gets bored with you. The battle with London's competitive nightlife makes you reguarly ask yourself: "What have I to offer"? The efforts to entertain your BF are as tiresome as the question how organize your own life so it won't get dull. And once you got things fixed you yourself run into this willing guy. The tragicomedy the Spell tells the story of four men, Robin, the ageing architect who enjoys his life together with his younger BF Justin, a witty layabout, Robin's son Danny, a georgeous body dealing in superficiality and Justin's former lover Alex, a well-mannered young man in search for consistency. To find out if they all get what they want is a truly delicious way to spend your time. The story is written out of the perspective of all leading parts and therefore very nicely ballanced. Hollinghurst is gifted with a great sense of attentiveness. His characters show many different moods caused by tiny events. Every self-assured attitude is merciless exposed. I recognized myself and my friends many times without realizing this ever before. It made me smile and reassured me. I think this is Hollinghurst's most post-modern novel. Unlike the Swimming-Pool Library's sexual odyssee this is a splintered glimps into life and how down to earth it can be.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Hollinghurst has created a very moving work of fiction with "The Spell." It's the story of four gay men at various stages of life whose lives intersect. Hollinghurst's deft style brings the characters to life realistically and compassionately. He handles issues like loss, rejection, aging, parenting, jealousy, and sexuality with the precision of a patient and gifted surgeon. He cuts right through to the core of human emotions.Hollinghurst's command of the English language is admirable and his prose is both soothing and sensual. This book is a real treat. I expected another long description of campy, drug-filled nights out on the town filled with sex and the hedonistic attitudes so common among gay men but instead discovered a moving story filled with expressive, three dimensional characters. I highly recommend it.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!
Review: Hollinghurst has created a very moving work of fiction with "The Spell." It's the story of four gay men at various stages of life whose lives intersect. Hollinghurst's deft style brings the characters to life realistically and compassionately. He handles issues like loss, rejection, aging, parenting, jealousy, and sexuality with the precision of a patient and gifted surgeon. He cuts right through to the core of human emotions. Hollinghurst's command of the English language is admirable and his prose is both soothing and sensual. This book is a real treat. I expected another long description of campy, drug-filled nights out on the town filled with sex and the hedonistic attitudes so common among gay men but instead discovered a moving story filled with expressive, three dimensional characters. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: A straight grandmother writes...
Review: Hollinghurst's character development is attrocious to a point where nothing is out of character for anyone. While he brings together four potentially strong characters (the nice guy, the young tease, the oddly aloof and the aging circumspect lover), he leaves an unseemly amount of room for expansion on both the characters, their interactions, their foibles and a multitude of themes. He deals sparingly with class distinction, its role in gay society and differences in city versus country life (by making the country-dwelling main characters oblivious of the staid nature of the tired hamlet). Oddly, he writes powerfully of the "nice guy's" first experiment with Ecstasy, intertwining it poignantly his relationship with the "young tease," though overall the book does little to challenge or promote thought. The Spell is little more than a mildly believable portrayal of gay life, a diversion that should be recognized as such.
Rating:
Summary: SPELLBINDING - Hollinghurst is a blast.
Review: I must declare I'm not an avid literature critic - but Hollinghurst's THE SPELL is one book that is savagely hilarious and uproariously witty. It is laudable that Hollinghurst has managed to intertwine and chronicle the love-life of 4 distinctive men as a poignant paragon of the solitude and recklessness of the gay culture. I like especially the gentle and sentimental Alex - and the part of the book where he is introduced to the glitzy bar and drugs by Danny - it's been such an eye-opener. The descriptions used by Hollinghurst is haunting and imaginative - like that of his intelligent use of "the moths and birds" to mock at the characters' folly wickedly. Sardonic humour laced with irony - it's gay literature at its best. Not to mention the eroticism of Hollinghurst's description - it's instant classic. However, the book clearly shines at where loss is concerned - it's acutely realistic and savage especially where Robin lost his lover to AIDS and Alex overcoming his lost love and sense of loss. Justin, being the sarcastic and selfish wisecracker, comes off as a timely comedic relief to the already bitter situation. Hollinghurst may not have the deeper insights on life as on his earlier books in here, but THE SPELL weaves magic in its lyrical prose which captures such rich imagination. The end of the book evokes a tinge of sadness and asperity over their convoluted life. "Some people may never know what it's like to fall in love - just like some musicians who knew nothing about music beyond their gift for making it." - Such is Hollinghurst's ingenious insight on love which is sadly rare and obliterated from other gay literature, and because of his keen observations, his work is enchanting and excruciatingly real.
Rating:
Summary: An Engaging, Enjoyable Read
Review: I've read all three of Hollinghurst's novels and must be the only one who thinks The Folding Star was his best, this the next best, and his first, Swimming Pool Library, the least enjoyable. It is a pleasure to read a book that one doesn't constantly feel compelled to edit in one's mind as one is reading it. Hollinghurst's style is lyrical, with a descriptive economy more typical of poetry than of prose. His descriptions of sex, moreover, are more true to life than most writers provide, without, in my view, becoming pornographic. Likewise, the standout aspect of this novel, it seems to me, is Hollinghurst's dead-on description of the interaction of ecstasy (the drug, not the concept) and music. I would not have thought it possible to capture that experience so well in writing. Also welcome is the interaction among this book's three generations of characters, which reflects the interesting ability that gay life sometimes has, contrary to certain stereotypes, to cross age boundaries. All that said, the characters are not terribly interesting, this novel fails to exhibit the skillful manipulation of multiple plot lines that characterized his previous two, and, again in sharp contrast to his prior two novels, the end of The Spell is a bit of a disappointment. Nevertheless, I sped through it with pleasure.
Rating:
Summary: An Engaging, Enjoyable Read
Review: I've read all three of Hollinghurst's novels and must be the only one who thinks The Folding Star was his best, this the next best, and his first, Swimming Pool Library, the least enjoyable. It is a pleasure to read a book that one doesn't constantly feel compelled to edit in one's mind as one is reading it. Hollinghurst's style is lyrical, with a descriptive economy more typical of poetry than of prose. His descriptions of sex, moreover, are more true to life than most writers provide, without, in my view, becoming pornographic. Likewise, the standout aspect of this novel, it seems to me, is Hollinghurst's dead-on description of the interaction of ecstasy (the drug, not the concept) and music. I would not have thought it possible to capture that experience so well in writing. Also welcome is the interaction among this book's three generations of characters, which reflects the interesting ability that gay life sometimes has, contrary to certain stereotypes, to cross age boundaries. All that said, the characters are not terribly interesting, this novel fails to exhibit the skillful manipulation of multiple plot lines that characterized his previous two, and, again in sharp contrast to his prior two novels, the end of The Spell is a bit of a disappointment. Nevertheless, I sped through it with pleasure.
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