Our Evenings booklet He read English at Magdalen College Oxford graduating in 1975 and subsequently took the further degree of Master of Literature 1979 While at Oxford he shared a house with Andrew Motion and was awarded the Newdigate Prize for poetry in 1974 the year before Motion. Our Evenings poetry out In the late 1970s he became a lecturer at Magdalen and then at Somerville College and Corpus Christi College Oxford In 1981 he moved on to lecture at University College London In 1997 he went on an Asia book tour in Singapore. Our evenings synopsis He read English at Magdalen College Oxford graduating in 1975 and subsequently took the further degree of Master of Literature 1979 While at Oxford he shared a house with Andrew Motion and was awarded the Newdigate Prize for poetry in 1974 the year before Motion. Fiction our evenings book In the late 1970s he became a lecturer at Magdalen and then at Somerville College and Corpus Christi College Oxford In 1981 he moved on to lecture at University College London In 1997 he went on an Asia book tour in Singapore. Poetry Our eveningstar cinema He lives in London site_link From the internationally acclaimed winner of the Booker Prize a piercing novel that envisions modern England through the lens of one man s acutely observed and often unnerving experience as he struggles with class and race art and sexuality love and violence Did I have a grievance Most of us without looking far could find something that had harmed us and oppressed us and unfairly held us back I tried not to dwell on it thought it healthier not to though I d lived my short life so far in a chaos of privilege and prejudice Dave Win the son of a British dressmaker and a Burmese man he s never met is thirteen years old when he gets a scholarship to a top boarding school With the doors of elite English society cracked open for him heady new possibilities lie before Dave even as he is exposed to the envy and viciousness of his wealthy classmates above all that of Giles Hadlow whose worldly parents sponsored the scholarship and who find in Dave someone they can easily nurture than their brutish son Our Evenings follows Dave from the 1960s on through the possibilities that remained open for him and others that proved to be illusory as a working class brown child in a decidedly white institution a young man discovering queer culture and experiencing his first formative love affairs a talented but often overlooked actor on the road with an experimental theater company and an older Londoner whose late in life marriage fills his days with an unexpected sense of happiness and security Moving in and out of Dave s orbit are the Hadlows Estranged from his parents who remain close to Dave Giles directs his privilege into a career as a powerful right wing politician whose reactionary vision for England pokes perilous holes in Dave s stability And as the novel accelerates towards the present day the two men s lives and values will finally collide in a cruel shock of violence This is one of our most gifted writers The Boston Globe sweeping readers from our past to our present through the beauty pain and joy of one deeply observed life Our EveningsIt s been seven long years since Hollinghurst s last novel The Sparsholt Affair but it s been worth the wait In only his seventh novel in 36 years the author once again redefines the English novel incorporating all he has seen felt and learnt in his 70 years we are roughly the same age I m 6 weeks older than he In telling the story of biracial gay actor David Win beginning in 1961 when he is 13 and on holiday at Woolpeck the stately home of his benefactors the Hadleys and tracing his ups and down right up through the pandemic year of 2020 Hollinghurst gives us perhaps the finest state of the nation novel since his own Booker winning The Line of Beauty twenty years ago Roughly the first half details David s travails as an Exhibitioner a charity student at Bampton his boarding school and his relationship with Giles the wealthy and sadistic scion of the Hadley family who naturally eventually becomes a Brexit promoting Tory MP This section not only consciously echoes Hollinghurst s Booker winner but every OTHER boarding school novel somewhat of a Brideshead Revisited Revisited but with Hollinghurst s exquisite prose and unerring characterizations Then the second half covers the rest of David s life from his early days as a struggling actor in an experimental theatre troupe to a seasoned performer and author and also delineates through his gay relationships and that of his own mother with the estimable Esme the trajectory of the gay rights movement from the time such affairs were illegal right up to marriage equality Even though it took me an inordinate time to read the first half my fault NOT the novel s I breezed through the second section in two days riveting stuff here and as theatre is my field I enjoyed all the references to dramatic works known and imagined Many of the 34 chapters could easily be read as standalone short stories but the throughline makes them even impactful I wouldn t be at all surprised to find this on the 2025 Booker longlist and perhaps Hollinghurst will join that rare pantheon of double Booker winners My sincere and grateful thanks to Netgalley and Random House for the ARC in advance of publication in exchange for this honest and enthusiastic review English Listen I m usually all into experimental literature and unusual aesthetic decisions but this this is traditional storytelling at its very best an absorbing sweeping epic about race class and sex spanning the last ca 75 years in the UK and I just could not put it down Hollinghurst tells the life story of David Win born in 1948 whom we first meet as a fourteen year old boarder at Bampton school where he is on a scholarship sponsored by the wealthy Hadlow family known to be avid supporters of the arts David who never met his father is half Burmese and gay growing up with a single mother who works as a seamstress and causes even scandal by sharing her life with a woman He goes on to attend Oxford and then becomes an actor all through his life having to fight not only racism but as a gay man also homophobia While David is making his way in the arts Giles Hadlow the son of the Hadlow family who is just three months younger than him makes it big as a Tory MP a Minister and then a Brexiteer While David pushes forward he is the force that pushes backwards It is masterful how Hollinghurst manages to convey how David is shaped by the people he meets and his experiences throughout his life not only his own family and the Hadlows but also his friends and colleagues People and instances re appear thoughout the text showing David s growth and changing political circumstances in the background this is also a story about British politics especially British racism from colonialism David s mother worked for Major General Hubert Rance in Burma which became independent the year of our protagonist s birth to social movements and experimental theater where David is involved that aimed to overcome everyday racism and professional limitations of non white artists up to xenophobia driven Brexit and finally the rise of anti Asian hate crime during COVID It s of course also a story about a young man growing into his sexuality and experiencing changing societal attitudes towards queer people All these themes are carried by the life like touching rendering of David a flawed deeply human individual chasing happiness Throughout the text Hollinghurst adds theater references to numerous plays and the roles David plays and these references go way beyond pointing towards the struggles of an actor who can t pass as white in the world of British theater They are interwoven with the story and good luck to the people writing theses about the complex net of meaning behind this composition there are also circular references like the fact that Hollinghurst himself translated Racine s Bajazet in which David performs Additionally there are hints to other artworks most notably Burmese fashion paintings like The Messenger a Tragic Gesture music like On an Overgrown Path which contains the movement Our Evenings and poetry like Spelt from Sibyl s Leaves which contains the lines ur vening is over us ur night wh lms wh lms nd will end usThe title also points to actual evenings in the novel time David spends with people that are important to him The whole story is told in such a psychologically plausible and nuanced way the dependency of the arts on the people they criticize the brutality of love complex family dynamics etc plus there is a turn at the end that I can t give away which is rather brilliant I am in awe of this achievement and am now eagerly waiting for Hollinghurst to extend his collection of literary prizes English Are the sex scenes the problem Is that why Americans have been reluctant to embrace the novels of Alan Hollinghurst Britain s finest prose stylist Given the extraordinary quality of his writing he should be snapped up on this side of the Atlantic by refined book clubs that adore Zadie Smith Ian McEwan and Julian Barnes Instead he seems stuck in the U. PDF Our evenings lalate The sex scenes the gay sex scenes are a tempting explanation for Americans squeamishness After all Hollinghurst s earliest novels starting with The Swimming Pool Library in 1988 could still send a whole Moms for Liberty convention into orgiastic paroxysms of rage And 20 years ago when The Line of Beauty won the Booker Prize even the most laudatory reviewers myself among them felt compelled to pass out smelling salts lest the novel s explicit content overwhelm virginal readers. Ours' or ours But surely despite the recent revival of Anthony Comstock we ve grown experienced and worldly right Ocean Vuong Garth Greenwell and Justin Torres are all thriving in the freedom that Hollinghurst helped create Miranda July s feminist sexcapade All Fours has been on the bestseller list for months and it s a finalist for a National Book Award If there were ever a moment for American readers of literary fiction to pick up Hollinghurst it s now. Our evenings alan hollinghurst signed Particularly since at age 70 this seminal writer has grown coy when it comes to erotic adventures His gorgeous new novel Our Evenings is a story of growing up coming out and making one s way in the world but the libidinous elements are almost entirely buried in the satiny folds of his prose That s not to suggest any attenuation of his potency just the natural reckoning of a complicated life lived well which is the theme of this ruminative story Our Evenings is presented as the memoir of an actor named Dave Win one of those performers just famous enough for people to know they should recognize even if they don t But at the opening his origins are so. Lots of books to read To read the rest of this review go to The Washington Post English A moving and beautifully written story which begins with Dave a half British half Burmese teen who has just started boarding school on a funded scholarship Up until then he lived with his widowed working class white mother He s never known his father and doesn t seem to want to know about him This is the first of this author s books that I ve read and I found this to be such a moving story which also unfortunately felt all too real The attitude of the majority of his classmates toward him the fact that he is there on a funded scholarship seems to make him less than in their eyes While he does make friends with some he seems to feel a need to prove that he is than they seem to see him An often heartbreaking story as the years pass Dave shares the barriers he has had to come to terms with along with the success he s had in the theater over the years as well as sharing the friendships over the years those he has loved his commitment to family and to finding someone to share his life with someone to love Pub Date 08 Oct 2024Many thanks for the ARC provided by Random House Publishing Group Random House Random House English ARC for review To be published October 8 2024 I do love Alan Hollinghurst His novels all have some similarities but they are all so lovely This follows Dave Win from the 1960s to present day Dave is the son of a single mother British dressmaker and a Burmese man he s never met which means he s not white which didn t always make his life easy He is awarded a scholarship to Bampton a top boarding school where he comes into contact with the monied class particularly Giles Hadlow as his parents Cara and Mark the Hadlow family sponsors his scholarship and he is invited to spend time at their country home during his first year at school This short visit impacts his life and he keeps up with Cara and Mark for decades Throughout his life Giles becomes estranged from his parents as he becomes a conservative politician The stay closer to Dave an actor The two men circle round each other over the years Ignore some of the jacket information as it isn t really what the book is about it s about Dave s life as he navigates the world as a lower class gay man pursuing acting in London as the author examines issues of race class and sexual orientation in the 1960s 1980s I enjoyed it very much the pacing is nice and it s not flashy but completely nice English
Well do not want to continue it would be too much agony I am just not a fan of hollinghurst writing It s like putting walnuts in brownies or cookies an acquired taste English Another exceptional book from Alan Hollinghurst. Poetry Our eveningstar cinema As always you re drawn into a world where manners are perfect drama is polite and the characters so multi layered you can t help but need to know every single detail about them. Our eveningstar ddo Excellent as always Thank you for my advanced copy English This is old fashioned storytelling at its finest Reminiscent of the beloved at least to me Delderfield sagas of a previous generation Alan Hollinghurst examines British s through the lens of a most interestingly flawed and attractive narrator David Win Biracial and gay he is the recipient of kindness on the part of a wealthy family who are patrons of the arts thus allowing Hollinghurst to do a deep dive into many areas that have shaped Britain s aesthetic and political history Immersive and informative at the same time English This was a truly gorgeous poignant book which I will be thinking about for a long time to come It s literary fiction a fictional biography of queer mixed race actor and writer Dave Win which details his life from his schoolboy days through to his elderly years I was just so absorbed in this story Dave is such a realistic flawed and relatable character He is of mixed English and Burmese heritage brought up in Wiltshire by his white mother and her lover and business partner Esme He faces a lot of racism due to his heritage throughout his life often small innocuous things that add up to cause upset such as people asking where he is from and how long he has been in England He also has setbacks in his acting life due to often being racially cast although does successfully find his niche as he ages His queerness is portrayed as something almost background in his life being raised by a sapphic partnership then later being ensconced in the naturally queer world of the theatre he doesn t feel any anxiety around his sexuality and as he poignantly says in the book his sexuality was almost hidden behind his being different in a obvious way his race This book picks up on specific points in his life and gives us an overview on points that were significant to Dave I loved seeing the various points where he falls hopelessly in love an unrequited pining for a teacher at school a crush on a roommate at university an obsession with a fellow actor and of course his twilight years relationship with his husband Richard These different liaisons and romantic relationships shape Dave and are offset with other relationships in his life his patronage by Mark Hudson a philanthropist who funds his scholarship his turbulent friendship with Mark s son Giles and his gradually building closeness with his mother s lover Esme This book is beautifully written and if you are looking for something which will delve deep into your brain and refuse to let go this is the one for you Read Our Evenings for Literary fiction fictional biography Historical fiction 1940 s 2020 Gay biracial Burmese English MC Lesbian Bi key side characters Spans from schoolboy to pensioner An actor and a writer Beautiful poignant writing Thank you to Pride Book Tours and Picador Books for the ARC of this book It is available 3rd October 2024 English Our Evenings is beautifully written with elegant prose and vivid character portrayals Hollinghurst thoughtfully explores themes of race class and sexuality weaving them into the narrative with subtlety However while the treatment of these themes is insightful the overall narrative lacked the momentum to fully engage me I found it a book to appreciate for its style and thematic depth but occasionally wondered what it all added up to In any case Alan Hollinghurst continues to demonstrate that he is a writer of great skill and beauty Whatever my own quibbles with the narrative Our Evenings is not to be missed:
| Our Evenings By Alan Hollinghurst |
| 0593243064 |
| 9780593243060 |
| English |
| 496 |
| Hardcover |
| our evenings alan hollinghurst signed |
| our evenings a novel reviews |
| our evenings alan hollinghurst waterstones |
| our evenings alan hollinghurst review |
| our evenings synopsis |
| our evenings signed |
| our evenings book |
| our evenings book review |
| what is the theme of the book night |
| ourbooker.co.uk |
| our endless numbered days by claire fuller |
| evening standard book of strange stories |
| books everywhere |
| book our evenings |
| lots of books to read |
Our evenings a novel reviews
Alan Hollinghurst is an English novelist and winner of the 2004 Booker Prize for The Line of Beauty. Our evenings book review In 1981 he joined The Times Literary Supplement and was the papers deputy editor from 1982 to 1995. Our eveningsm menu He lives in London Alan Hollinghurst is an English novelist and winner of the 2004 Booker Prize for The Line of Beauty, PDF Our evenings delight In 1981 he joined The Times Literary Supplement and was the paper s deputy editor from 1982 to 1995. Our Evenings poetrysoup I loved the journey of this book its flow through time and as David gets older his interactions become complex and interesting. What is the theme of the book night 5 5ARC for review To be published October 8 2024 English 
.