The Line of Beauty is a 2004 Booker Prize-winning novel by Alan Hollinghurst.
Set in the United Kingdom in the early to mid-1980s, the story surrounds the post-Oxford life of the young gay protagonist, Nick Guest.
As the novel begins, Nick moves into the household of the Fedden family, comprising his friend, crush, and fellow Oxford graduate Toby; Toby's eccentric sister Catherine; their wealthy and aristocratic mother, Rachel; and their Thatcher...
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The Line of Beauty is a 2004 Booker Prize-winning novel by Alan Hollinghurst.
Set in the United Kingdom in the early to mid-1980s, the story surrounds the post-Oxford life of the young gay protagonist, Nick Guest.
As the novel begins, Nick moves into the household of the Fedden family, comprising his friend, crush, and fellow Oxford graduate Toby; Toby's eccentric sister Catherine; their wealthy and aristocratic mother, Rachel; and their Thatcher-obsessed father, Gerald, a newly-elected MP for the Conservative Party. Nick remains a guest in the Fedden home until he is expelled at the end of the novel. Nick has his first romance with a black council worker, Leo, but a later relationship with Wani, the son of a rich Lebanese businessman, illuminates the ruthlessness of 1980s Thatcherite Britain.
The book explores the tension between Nick's intimate relationship with the Feddens, in whose parties and holidays he participates, and the realities of his sexuality and gay life, which the...
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