Spoiler Alert!

Well, not really, but some dates perhaps. May be seen by no one before the discussion but may prove useful to someone behind and catching up. Chapter titles (as printed) and years (spoilers!): One — A New Man (1940); Two — The Lookout (1966); Three — Small Oils (1975); Four — Losses (1995); and Five — Consolations (2012-13). A question that might be worth discussing is why Hollinghurst didn't provide the dates himself. There may be all sorts of good answers. Still …

Exact dates may not be that important (and I may have not have all the years above exactly right), but consider: Michael is "twenty-three" (p. 380); Johnny is thirty years older ("thirty-year difference in age" p. 383); but in 2012 Johnny is "sixty years old" (p. 361).

Trivial to be sure (I think) and not worth much discussion (which is why I'm posting them here), but consider: Johnny drives a Volvo down to the Miserdens in Virginia Water (p. 362) but a page later it's become a Vulva. And both words are used elsewhere to identify the same object. Spell-checking would blanch at neither. Proof-reading, Knopf may believe, is obviated by its pretentious deckle-edging. Started down this road, however, one wonders whether it's Alan's colloquial habit to refer to Volvos as Vulvas—I've been know to do as much myself—and not to have written it entirely out of his system.