The Spell

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.

I am enchanted by this novel. It has everything a good tale should have. Love, flirtation, disappointment in the lives of the four main characters, suspension and denouement in their actions or passivity, a wonderful description of the environment in which these upper-middle class Englishmen move, a lovely style so full of unexpected turns of phrase and new insights for someone like me who was never attracted by drugs, life in the country or people older than me.

What however strikes me most is the absence of happenings that are typically gay. Perhaps the only true gay experience lies in the switch of Robin's persuasion from hetero husband to gay father and this must have happened twenty years ago and is not gone into in any great detail. All the other events could occur in any group of people not necessarily gay.

Danny, whose development from a flirtatious, irresponsible young thing to a person of maturity, could be Daniela; Justin, who leaves Alex for Robin, Danny's father, could be Justine; Terry, the slut, could be the village whore, Teresa. A few minor characters who move in gay circles could be the personnel of any novel. Alex's mid-life crisis which drives him to young blood, is not a particularly gay feature. Nor are the whims and predilections of the novel's characters particular to gay lifestyle.

To sum up: Alan Hollinghurst has written a masterly novel which should attract anyone whether gay or not, because it is a perfect comédie humaine.

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.

Beautifully written prose by Hollinghurst describes the loves and betrayals of 3 gay men. How each cope and their feelings toward each other as they meet on a weekend. Two are ex-lovers and we find a contrived weekend merely to compare loves. It's cruel and Justin is cruel. Robbin is hot. Alex is dumped and lonely.
Hollinghurst manages to illicit emotions and feelings from the smallest things in life and encapsulate them and uses them to describe how a little stream, dust motes in the air all of these wreak havoc with Alex, a man who has had his heart broken. He tries to move forward but doesn't have the fortitude. Then he meets Danny a 21 year old. They fall madly in love. Tender, touching story of journey of the unsure older man and the a younger man in love, lust and life.

Found the book captivating and full of pathos, hate, love and misunderstanding. All the things that I love in a gay love story. The loves and lives of gays seems to me to be beautiful and cruel at the same time....especially in The Spell.

A subtle and beautiful novel about lust and love.The story tells of an odd foursome, fuelled by drugs and passion, make connections both lasting and powerful.

Unlike The Line of Beauty, Hollinghurst's most recent release, which affords the usual elegant prose of the story of a young man under the roof of a Parliament member during Margaret Thatcher's England, The Spell is almost completely rid of political overtone. Tinged with pique and cross-purpose jokes, page by page the novel weaves a tapestry of love, lust, and loss among a group of middle-class gay Englishmen who are friends, ex-lovers, father and son. In exploring each of these relations and the uneasy conflicts, Hollinghurst's elegant, crisp prose fosters a sharp observation and psychological insight that accentuate these men's vulnerability.

Close reading of The Spell reveals a very fine-tuned delineation of each of the four men, whose personalities and struggles incontrovertibly pervade in many of us. The story kicks off when the 36-years-old Alex accepts invitation from his ex-boyfriend Justin to spend a weekend in the country home with his new lover Robin, a forty-something gay dad. The prose lends its abrupt nature to the suspicion that Justin must out of his guilty respect for Alex's feelings to extend the solicitous invitation. But Alex is mellow and meek - he can never blame Justin for capriciously leaving him. He still misses Justin despite of the devastating evidence that what his friends hostilely say about him is vindicated. From the weekend gathering Hollinghurst probes the topography of the hearts of these men.

That Hollinghurst is able to capture the terrain of his characters' emotional and mental struggle through the intimacy of their thoughts touches me. The novel is an immediate warm attachment to my heart. Even though Alex is constantly in people's company, the companionship and the bar scenes compound his loneliness and amplify his depression. Alex's absence of any allusion to his ex-lover's new love is clear sign of how upset he might be. No sooner has he arrived than he regrets of taking up the invitation because he has to hide how wounded he is by Justin, and thrives to sustain the right pitch of pretended toward Robin. What ultimately dooms him is the cruel reality of his failure in relationship, that no other man will want him and to fall in love with him. This is not easy for someone like Alex who is serious, cultured, someone who wears his sleeve out in a relationship, and that one relationship into which he imbues all his hope breaks his heart. That commitment and innocence shall meet a reckless betrayal in the end must arouse sympathy.

Hollinghurst's novel is never deprived of drug escapade. At the crossroad of relationship, Alex insouciantly drops a tab of ecstasy, provided by Robin's gay son, and plunges into the rave, high-energy, substance-fuelled London club scenes. Alex embraces nightlife as if it might promise a love life that is not as checkered. Under the power of the E pill, Alex has no regret of his late-booming hedonism in which he gropes in an unbridled way different kinds of happiness. As he dawns on his self-discovery through the liberation, the shock of seeing Alex again brings about Justin a quiet bout of vexation, undulation, whoofs of lust, and puzzled fondness. Reunion with Alex and his fight with Robin seizes Justin with the grip of scruple over his momentary caprice that sometimes can cause a horrid nuisance in someone else's life.

The Spell with the outward blowsy parties and carefree affairs is endowed with an undertow of finding true love. It embraces the longing for a soul mate despite a humanistic thirst for carnal deviance. It maps out different paths in life taken by various men. The path could be one that has been gripped and shaped by sexual lore, or one that witnesses the constant indispensable presence of lovers, or one that relishes the deceits and the success of which delivers a sense of competence.

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.

Enjoyed it from start to finish. Don't understand the disparaging reviews. It's not "boring", it's engaging. I wanted to understand, and learn more about what happend to, each of the four principal characters, as I moved through the book. Of course it's well-written -- it's by Alan Hollinghurst. It doesn't have the depth of, say, "The Swimming-Pool Library", with its nested story of Lord Nantwich, and it doesn't span decades and generations, like "The Stranger's Child" (and the truly boring "The Sparsholt Affair"), but it was very satisfying. If you enjoy Hollinghurst, don't miss it!

bad book, no plot, sloppy writing, comes off more as a porn .

As I very much enjoyed "The Line of Beauty," I thought the same would be true of this novel. Alas, as others have noted, my foremost memory after having finished is boredom.

Of course, the writing is beautiful and there are various laugh-out-loud lines, but when it comes down to it, nothing much happens—or at least nothing much to care about. Every time I thought I'd stop, the writing was just good enough to make me keep going, thinking something great was around the corner.

Perhaps these characters seemed realistic in the '90s but they don't today. The author would've done better to focus on one rather than all four, as you never learn enough about any specific character to be interested in what happens to him. Plus there are so many names of their various friends that I didn't even try to keep track of who was who. I wished I'd spent my time reading something else.