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Alan Hollinghurst
Oct. 26th, 2005 06:41 pmWhat a gracious man. Imagine that you are an author who has won the Man Booker Prize. You are traveling, giving readings and lectures, far from your home. You come to a large city, where you have been scheduled to speak at a University noted for its pursuit of knowledge and lack of partying. And eight people show up. Yes, your reading was set to begin at the same time as the fourth (and perhaps final) game of the World Series, in which Chicago's South Side team is playing. Even at the University of Chicago, that's a big deal.
Nevertheless, Hollinghurst took it in stride, gave us a good reading from A Line of Beauty (he has a splendid voice for it), and there was a very interesting discussion. Fortunately, a few of the people there had actually read the book! (I confess that I was not one of them. It's been on Mt. TBR for a while, and I did not learn of his appearance soon enough to read it first. However, it is the November selection for 57th Street Books' Book Club, so I think I will read it and go to that meeting. It sounds quite Jamesian, and that's a good thing.
Someone asked him how his life has changed since he won the Booker Prize. Among other things, he commented that his audiences have changed. They used, he said, to consist mostly of gay men who would come up after the reading and invite him for a drink. Now they are mostly women, over 60, who tell him that their book groups are reading his book. Afterwards, the one young man in the audience came up and said that as the one gay man there, he would invite AH for a drink. ;-)
It really was too bad that more people didn't come, though.
Nevertheless, Hollinghurst took it in stride, gave us a good reading from A Line of Beauty (he has a splendid voice for it), and there was a very interesting discussion. Fortunately, a few of the people there had actually read the book! (I confess that I was not one of them. It's been on Mt. TBR for a while, and I did not learn of his appearance soon enough to read it first. However, it is the November selection for 57th Street Books' Book Club, so I think I will read it and go to that meeting. It sounds quite Jamesian, and that's a good thing.
Someone asked him how his life has changed since he won the Booker Prize. Among other things, he commented that his audiences have changed. They used, he said, to consist mostly of gay men who would come up after the reading and invite him for a drink. Now they are mostly women, over 60, who tell him that their book groups are reading his book. Afterwards, the one young man in the audience came up and said that as the one gay man there, he would invite AH for a drink. ;-)
It really was too bad that more people didn't come, though.
