Will be coming back to this!!! Realized I wanted something lighter 

I frankly just don’t like a funny book. I actually think I would love to see this on the stage, as it’s well suited for a play, and maybe I’d like it if I were reading it for a class on its literary/historical merit. But for funsies? No go

Perhaps too weird for me? And I like a weird book. The whole doubling bit felt too on the nose yet somehow not fully executed at the same time. I don’t think I get this — or maybe it’s just not very good. 

Simply so much fun. I wish I had written this book, which is perhaps the highest compliment I can give. Unhinged in the best way and dead on in all of its analyses, if they did feel a little randomly dropped in at times. Love to hate these guys

A truly contemporary Dickensian novel. Fun and self-conscious in a good way, and all about money and class at the end of the day; a crazy cast of eccentric characters, all of them caricatures in their own way but believably so. Loved the London place-based-ness of it all, which was especially fun to read after staying with Esohe in Kings Cross just last week. A modern epic. Good fun 

Bizarre, and maybe not in a good way? Some incredible bits of prose, but the story just seemed so implausible and preposterous that I didn’t feel like I was in it; instead I just felt pulled along. Was positioned like an exploration of female desire, but I never felt like Hero had a desire? She just seemed to keep stumbling through these events, and then boom, a new lover emerges? Great premise, some awesome quips on refinement and beauty, but overall, the characters didn’t seem to be part of the story 

It’s so funny how the British archetype of a middle class student goes to a prestigious uni, meets an enticing posh boy and his family, becomes enchanted with the idea of luxury and sophistication, only to be rejected as an intruder at the end repeats itself in British lit (I’m looking at you Brideshead Revisited). I had no idea that this book

would end up being about AIDS, but I think it was done really well.

I’m glad I read Hollinghurst’s afterword about intentionally making Nick an apolitical narrator in a political moment, because otherwise I would’ve felt slighted by such a disinterested protagonist, but luckily I know that that was the point. But does that save it? Points off because I never really felt like I was rooting for Nick, even though the story itself was interesting enough to keep me going

I’ll admit that ensemble novels don’t tend to be my favorite, but I was just so lost in the sauce on this one. It just felt like we were jumping around for no good reason and like too many of the plots repeated themselves. Like Ivan and Goran are so like Fyodor and Timo what’s the point? Also I feel like there were way too many characters just like one another for an ensemble book. Idk. Just felt underdeveloped yet somehow overdone. Moments of good insight, but overall, I’m not a fan 

Respectfully, I just hate nonfiction. Especially memoir-style nonfiction. Who are you?? Why do I care??