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A Novel
by Alan Hollinghurst
Book Reviewed by:From the internationally acclaimed winner of the Booker Prize, a piercing novel of modern England through the lens of one man's acutely observed experiences.
Did I have a grievance? Most of us, without looking far, could find something that had harmed us, and oppressed us, and unfairly held us back. I tried not to dwell on it, thought it healthier not to, though I'd lived my short life so far in a chaos of privilege and prejudice.
Dave Win, the son of a a Burmese man he's never met and a British dressmaker, is thirteen years old when he gets a scholarship to a top boarding school. With the doors of elite English society cracked open for him, heady new possibilities emerge, even as Dave is exposed to the envy and viciousness of his wealthy classmates.
Alan Hollinghurst's new novel follows Dave from the 1960s on—through the possibilities that remained open for him, and others that proved to be illusory: as a working-class brown child in a decidedly white institution; a young man discovering queer culture and experiencing his first, formative love affairs; a talented but often overlooked actor, on the road with an experimental theater company; and an older Londoner whose late-in-life marriage fills his days with an unexpected sense of happiness and security.
From "one of our most gifted writers" (The Boston Globe), Our Evenings sweeps readers from our past to our present through the beauty, pain, and joy of one deeply observed life.
Prologue
No rehearsal this morning, so we stayed in bed—I made tea, and we sat propped up, searching our phones for stories about Mark. Why we needed to read them I'm not sure: perhaps knowing a famous person makes you part of the story, and you want whoever is telling it to see the point and get it right. The segment last night at the end of the News had been earnest but perfunctory, forty-five seconds from a young correspondent with no first-hand knowledge of the subject. It was confounding to learn about a friend's death in this way. I muted the set, Richard put his arm round me, and we sat saying nothing as the cricket and then the weather came on.
Richard only met Mark once, at the ninetieth-birthday dinner at the Tate, where two hundred guests sat down in a room that was hung for the occasion with his own gifts. Mark looked and sounded frail when he made his speech, but we were all on his side, and he was modest and generous, toasting Cara too, who was one day older than him....
What are you reading this week? (2024-10-31)
I just finished The Berry Pickers by Amanda Peters, about a Native American family of berry pickers whose four-year-old daughter goes missing. The plot is character-driven and there's not a lot of action, but I truly enjoyed it. BTW, the BookBrowse discussion of this book will open on November 21...
-kim.kovacs
What are you reading this week? (11/07/2024)
Just finished Alan Hollinghurst's Our Evenings. Really exceptional book - which makes it hard to move on. Fortunately my next book is completely different - In Our Midst by Nancy Jensen. It's historical fiction, about a German family in the US during WWII. I'm only a few pages in but so far, so g...
-kim.kovacs
Hollinghurst's brilliance is in compelling his readers to become completely invested in this character, to love him and rejoice with him and grieve with him. Dave becomes real to us, and utterly unforgettable. And then, of course, there's Hollinghurst's magnificent writing. Although lyrical writing can sometimes slow a book's pace, Hollinghurst's prose is so captivating that it renders the book utterly engrossing. Not only is the author's attention to detail exquisite, but often his observations hit home. Our Evenings is the first novel I've read by Hollinghurst, but it certainly won't be the last...continued
Full Review
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(Reviewed by Kim Kovacs).
Emma Donoghue, author of The Pull of the Stars and Room
Our Evenings is marked by a sharp eye, a tender sensibility, and an unflagging wit. I never wanted it to end. Paul Mendez, author of Rainbow Milk
This sublime novel—classic Hollinghurst in everything but point of view—could not be timelier.
Leoš Janáček (pronounced lay-osh YAH-NAAH-check) is widely considered the greatest Czech composer of the early twentieth century. Perhaps best known for his opera The Cunning Little Vixen, Janáček created not only several operas, but also symphonic works, chamber music, choral pieces, compositions for piano, and even one ballet. His piano cycle On an Overgrown Path contains 15 separate pieces in two volumes, the first of which, "Our Evenings," was the inspiration for Alan Hollinghurst's novel of the same name.
Janáček was born in Hukvaldy, Morovia (now a part of Czechoslovakia) in 1858, the ninth of fourteen children (only four of whom lived to adulthood). His father was a teacher,...
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