Rating: 
Summary: OVER-RATED!
Review: Tedious. That's the best word I can find to describe this book. Yes, Hollinghurst is a good writer but there's more to writing than exhausting and exhaustive descriptions of every mouth movement, eyebrow-raise, hand-gesture, tilt of the head! Things have to happen too! Major plot-occurrences should be SHOWN rather than talked about second-hand after the fact! There's got to be some sort of rising action to the plot! I swear, if you blink you'll miss the climax to this book. And if you do, you probably won't care. The four main characters are barely tolerable, let alone likeable. The reader never knows who to root for! And Alex, the one character who MIGHT warrant some reader affection and loyalty, is a drip. I couldn't care less if his relationship with Danny worked out or not.The only reason I slogged through to the end of this book was to see if it could somehow redeem itself. It didn't. Trust me, you'll be spending as much time counting how many excruciating pages are left to read as you will actually reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Leaves readers spell-bound!
Review: This author's almost obsessive attention to realism will enchant readers with beautiful language and fascinating characters. I really can't say much that other reviewers here haven't already said, except that I loved this novel, and I felt like I knew these people.
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