The Hour Between: A Novel

I really enjoyed the beautiful writing of this novel about Arthur MacDougal, an incoming senior (having flunked out of Colleigate HS) to this alternative boarding school in Conn. run without rules, tests, and based on the UK system of tutors and indvidualized learning.

While there, he is among 7 other graduating seniors, but the story is based on him and his clique of: Sapphire, Nicholas and Katrina Felt-daughter to a famous movie star.

Told with an almost whisper and sparing words, this novel brought me directly into the world of young Arthur. New York/downtown in the late 1960s-a time when drugs, and sex began to open up worlds;and the young were finding their voice. Arthur is also discovering his own budding sexuality, which is done show more with grace. Can't wait to read more by this author. show less

Things I liked about this book:
Stuart's writing style
Reading the perspective of a gay teenager (I don't know that I ever have before)
The dialogue in Sophia's class

Things I did not like about this book:
I wanted more--more to happen in terms of conversations between Arthur and his parents about him being gay, more in terms of Arthur finding Katrina in the present (though this is selfish of me),and more in terms of growth of the characters. On that note, I know that it is natural for people to just grow apart, especially at high school age, but that does not mean that people NEVER have the conversations they need to have. This does happen some of the time. Arthur never talked to Katrina about her bad choices and her family relationships, show more Nicholas never tells Sapphire how he feels, Arthur and his parents never really talk about his homosexuality, etc.


I suppose that it says a lot about this book that I wanted more rather than wanting it to end. Stuart wrote a humorous (at points), entertaining take on what could've been a typical "boarding school coming-of-age" novel. I read it in one afternoon. show less

A good, well written novel sort of about coming to age, more about coming to terms with being gay, but even that's not quite right. It's a story about friendships and boarding school, drugs and love. The story takes place over a year, though I felt like I was reading the book for ages. It's not that it's long (because it's not), instead, it's more like so much happens. It's a good book, not light, but not extremely dark either. Enjoyable.