799. The Swimming Pool Library

The Swimming Pool Library
Alan Hollinghurst
1988
Around 360 pages

Only one more to go before 800! Can you believe it? If I walked away now, I would be able to squeak out a C+ on the List. But of course, I can't walk away now because I'm a psycho.

William is a hot young gay man, although I was initially confused about his gender because he kept referring to his tits. He saves the life of an elderly aristocrat who has a heart-attack in a public lavatory during an orgy, and the man asks him to write his autobiography. 

Is the opportunity for homosexual encounters really so rampant and I'm just oblivious? It seems like you can't walk into a gym locker room or public bathroom without turning down at least three sexual partners. Anyway, this was a decently paced novel, with a very smug narrator. I was interested in watching the relationships develop, and the ending was satisfying. 

Plus there was a ton of gay sex, so what else do you want?

RATING: ****-

Interesting Facts:

In 1988, Edmund White called it, "surely the best book about gay life yet written by an English author."

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