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Loading... The Stranger's Child (original 2011; edition 2011)by Alan Hollinghurst
Work detailsThe Stranger's Child by Alan Hollinghurst (2011)
 lxydis | May 11, 2013 |  Closer to 4.5 stars. At heart, a beautifully written, intriguing story about a young aristocratic (soon to be famous) poet spending a weekend at the family home of his shy, innocent Cambridge friend just before the outbreak of WWI and deftly weaves it's way through the reverberations of the decades that follow. Told from differing POVs, who sometimes are only loosely connected with the original characters, it weaves various threads into a satisfying tapestry of interconnected lives. It's underlying themes of truth, memory, history, war, class and gay issues add substance to the wonderfully human characterization. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and want to thank my good friend Kim for bringing it to my attention, and also for patiently suffering through a slowish buddy read with me :-). (  ) jemidar | Apr 27, 2013 | This long, leisurely novel begins in 1913, when budding poet Cecil Valance visits the home of his Cambridge chum and lover George Sawle, where he charms Geroge's teen-age sister Daphne and pens a poem for her. After Cecil dies in the war, the poem becomes a beloved touchstone, his literary reputation is established and the novel follows the tangled relationships of his family, lovers and biographers over the next several generations. Beautifully written, with razor-sharp observations of class distinctions, the novel charts the changes in British social attitudes about homosexuality over the course of the 20th century. Excellent. ( ) alpin | Apr 12, 2013 | This reminded me of [b:The Children's Book|6280379|The Children's Book|A.S. Byatt|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1320548114s/6280379.jpg|5768221] a similar mood and cast of characters. Secret relationships, betrayals and poetry are at the center. Cecil Valance is a guy for every occasion and is loved by everyone, drawing them in with his charisma and sexual magnetism. He visits his lover's home, Two Acres, and completely charms his sister. The visit will have effects on generations to come. She is much too innocent to see her brother and Cecil's undercurrents of passion. This all happens in the first part. The book is divided into additional sections where a different timeframe and relationship to Cecil, who becomes a famous poet posthumously, is explored. The selfishness of our memories and the difficulty of relying on individual perceptions to create a legacy are the most interesting bits in the book. You have to wonder how reliable human narratives and histories really are when social norms dictate how we think people are, act and love... the truth can and does vary from person to person. We humans are so complicated and each person's truth is their own. I will definitely read more of this author. ( ) MichelleCH | Apr 5, 2013 | Hollinghurst is the undisputed master of the classic English novel in the 21st century. Crumbling aristocratic families wandering around their estates saying lightly cruel things to each other as war descends … he’s the best. Here he also takes on themes of legacy, history, and memory with imaginative and satisfying ambition. I would say that the further the reader gets from the man himself, Cecil Valance, the more one longs for his era, but this is certainly deliberate on Hollinghurst’s part. He achieves nostalgia in the reader for a time we know first hand to have been full of confusion and pain. Very well done. ( ) KatieANYC | Apr 2, 2013 |
 In The Stranger’s Child he weaves a number of stories around the idea of Brooke and his posthumous fortunes, detailing the lives caught up in the reputational arc of a Brooke-like poet called Cecil Valance between 1913 and 2008. Both world wars, fought offstage, have effects that ramify throughout the novel, as do changing attitudes to gay people and to biographical disclosure. Hollinghurst writes with amused tenderness about Rupert Trunk-type phenomena, investing them with dignity and pathos, but he also puts both hands on opportunities for irony, arch humour and, intermittently, an un-Jamesian directness.  In many ways, The Stranger's Child has the same qualities as his previous novels. It is elegant, seductive and extremely enjoyable to read, and peppered with astute, apparently casual noticings. (Of a man stumbling around in a shed at a party: "He was drunk, it was one of the hilarious uncorrectable disasters of being drunk." Of a grand literary wife: "A hard, good-looking face, thoroughly made up, and a manner he knew at once, from its tight smiles and frowns, of getting people to do things.") It treads much of the same ground as its predecessors: class and money, buried histories of gay life in this country, the dreary provinces and the exciting metropolis, with forays into architecture and Victoriana. As ever, Hollinghurst's set-piece parties are stunning. Hollinghurst’s fine new book, “The Stranger’s Child” — the closest thing he has written to an old-fashioned chronicle novel — contains a whole hidden literary curriculum, out of which he has fashioned something fresh and vital. Underpinned with a range of styles that run from Iris Murdoch to William Trevor and back to Forster, the novel is divided into five parts that play out over five different decades.
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Wikipedia in English
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Those who liked Atonement I think will also like this; TSC is reminiscent of Atonement in both its period sweep (taking place in the same era, TSC also spans almost the whole 20th century) and its coming-of-age and discovery of sexual secrets, including the evocation of adolescent fervor and self-centered naiveté. I loved Atonement myself, but I would say TSC is possibly even better, in that it has all the elements of a brilliantly evoked story, well drawn characters and the historical novel aspect that British writers so excell at, BUT without Ian McEwan's knowing, ironic cleverness (I can understand why some readers don't take to McEwan) which is why I think people who did NOT like Atonement would also like this book.
It's also nice to see a sympathetic central character who is a woman, and a book that's so broadly good while still sharing with other AH novels his preoccupations with sexuality and gay politics, written, as always with AH, skillfully and beautifully. I hate when books are labeled "gay" or are overtly "political" and simplistic, and I can say that ASC is quite simply an excellent novel.
The only complaint I have reinforces what a good writer AH is: you want more of each of the characters/stories in each time period. Even as you get towards the end of the book, it's always with a bit of surprise and disappointment you realize that you've moved forward yet another 10 or 20 years and have to meet someone new. But, every time, AH manages to get you totally involved with each new person and eager to find their connection to the central characters that you started the book (and the century) with.
Some reviewers have compared this to ASByatt's Possession, which is a stretch--I guess the themes of literary discovery, memory and recording etc--but other than that they're very different. I suppose if you like ASB in general--as a 3rd person, british novelist of "traditional" narrative--you will probably like AH too. I adore ASByatt myself but Possession is my least favorite novel of hers, as it has some of the affected contrivedness of he worst of Ian McEwan, which can be hard to take.
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