Pickles Aplenty

The NY Times  Magazine featured a profile of Hollinghurst last March. And a few years ago asked him which ten books he'd take to the famous desert island. Additionally, I've come to realize after my comment to Terry's post a week ago that Stephen Pickles is  "Pickles" — the author of Queens !!

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.

Stephen Pickles

In preparation for the next session, The Sparsholt Affair is dedicated to Stephen Pickles, a life-long friend of Hollinghurst and a careful reader of all his work, according to an interview Hollinghurst gave the the Philadelphia Gay News.  That whole interview is interesting to read, but a more informative review about Hollinghurst and his work to date (at that time) is in The Guardian presaging his winning of the Man Booker Prize for The Line of Beauty in 2004.

Vargas at the Wharf, Friday, Sept. 21

Jose Antonio Vargas, a gay former Washington Post  reporter, will be speaking about his new book, Dear America: Notes of an Undocumented Citizen, on Friday, Sept. 21, at 7 p.m. at Politics & Prose at the Wharf (70 District Square SW: nearest Metro, L'Enfant Plaza). The event is free, no reservation required. However, space is limited and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis.

"I think we are living in a science fiction novel."

Interesting post-Sparsholt interview with Alan Hollinghurst in Lambda Literary. Minor spoiler alert. And a typo that no spell check would ever discover (but anyone with a brain would, i.e. knowledge of spelling not required).

As for myself I didn't want to be rushed with our next book but am finding myself desperately trying not to rush (not to finish a week beforehand, not to forget). So in addition to a spoiler alert, perhaps a trigger warning is in order: this may be a book you find hard to put down!

"The Sexual Proclivities of the Black Community"

There is an interesting new series on HBO called Random Acts of Flyness. The last segment [about 18 minutes in] of the premiere episode is related to queer theory. I found it very interesting when the man being interviewed said, "I believe in fluidity in everything but race."

derring-do

several people looked blank when I referred to the skating scene in "Modern Times" as a distant ally of duende … but I'm sure, once seen, all will remember it