Beautiful writing. David is a compelling character but ultimately the pace of the storytelling didn’t work for me and I found it hard to connect with the characters even though I was fond of David.

I would recommend this to anyone in the mood for a leisurely paced and diary-like account of living in England as an “outsider”.

Thank you very much to Random House and NetGalley for the opportunity to read a copy.

OUR EVENINGS
Alan Hollinghurst

This is about nothing at all. At least that's what it felt like reading it. It felt like trying to to brush my teeth with someone else’s toothbrush and their incisors were bigger than mine and all the bristles were worn down and facing the wrong direction.

Like getting cozy in someone else’s bed.

I am so far removed from the characters that the whole book is for not. The characters seem to be a figment of the authors' memory rather than of their imagination. They seem so personal to the author that they weren't personal to me.

It feels like a story for one person (the author) and was an exercise in exploration of the self rather than sharing an experience with hopes of finding a community.

This is my first experience with this author so it could be that I'm trying to jump on a train that's well into its journey.

Not for me.

Thanks to Netgalley Random House Publishing Group - Random House | Random House for the advanced copy in exchange for a review!

OUR EVENINGS…⭐⭐

DNF at 39%

Alan Hollinghurst is back! My god, no one does it like him. The nuanced social machinations of upper-English society. The intimacies and desires. Everything he manages at a story-level. Every novel of his is a tome.

Thanks to the publisher for the e-galley!

Ultimately, this disappoints.

David Win's life becomes entangled with the Hadlows thanks to a scholarship he receives to go to Bampton (the Hadlow's alma mater for generations). He feels drawn to Mark Hadlow, the father he never knew, and Cara, Mark's wife, while fending off bullying by Giles, their son and his classmate. Because the book opens with David and Cara having dinner, I'd hoped for far more about the relationship he has with the family and their world.

Instead, we get more about David's career as an actor and his relationships with others, some romantic and some professional. While that's somewhat interesting, the early days in experimental theatre and touring go on far too long and his time as an established actor, in an established relationship are truncated. The Hadlows flit in and out, seemingly important to David's life but that's more via telling, not showing. Oh, and there's a far too long section on a beach holiday he takes with his mother and his mother's "business partner" (if their relationship isn't clear early on, and the class differences, etc., well... I felt hit over the head with it repeatedly throughout the book, when it was very obvious to any reader).

It's the last part of the book, with David as an adult, older actor, and how he finds himself thrown together (in a way) with Giles, that is the more interesting part and sadly, it's over far too quickly.

eARC provided by publisher via Netgalley.

Thanks to NetGalley and Random House for the eARC.

Our Evenings is a novel that covers a 40+ year span of the life of David Win who is also the humble narrator. David is the son of a British seamstress and a Burmese father who he never met. Over this time span, we learn of David's experiences and observations about race, homosexuality, class, bullying, and prejudice in English society that will encompass Brexit and Covid.. Despite his early opportunity of winning a scholarship to an exclusive private school and his talent as an actor, he is always made aware of the color of his skin.....one step forward, two steps back.
Along the way, the reader will meet a great group of characters that form a family around David and provide him with the love that we all as human beings seek. As readers we will also meet some very unkind characters.
This is my very first AH read, but will not be my last. His prose is so similar to the great classic authors.

I loved Alan Hollinghurst's new novel about David, who has worked hard to be accepted for 70 years. David is Burmese English and the son of a seamstress who met his father while working in Burma. David's struggles and victories in his chosen profession of acting match up brilliantly with his quest for personal acceptance and love as a gay man in society as we know it.

In Miles, AH creates the perfect villain to hate, David's bully, who rises to the top of the Tory party. David's relationship with his mother balances the hard times in his life. As always, the story is a brilliant one created by Mr Hollinghurst.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for the advanced copy of the book.

Oh dear. I suppose it had to end, but I so wanted it to continue infinitely. That velvety use of language, the devastating character portraits, the details and nuances, the refusal to foretell. It’s all so suave and precise and exquisitely phrased. And David is so complex yet crystalline.
In other words, it’s a triumph. Bravo.

Alan Hollinghurst is one of my favorite authors; I have read every book he has written so far. “The Swimming Pool Library” was the first book I read that talked openly about being gay, being attracted to men, and gay sex - it was a revelation to me!

I identified with much of the subject matter in “Our Evenings” as I went to an English public school followed by Cambridge University. But although I found Dave to be a sympathetic character, I didn’t feel the urge to keep reading about him, and eventually gave up at the start of Part II, about halfway through.

Sorry I couldn’t be more enthusiastic about this one. Thanks to NetGalley for an ARC.

I really, really liked this book. Prior to reading it, I’ll admit I hadn’t heard of Alan Hollinghurst—but after finishing I feel as though I’ve missed out starting so late. His style is very endearing and I could definitely feel echoes of Forster and the other great gay British writers.

The star of this novel is, literally and figuratively, David, and he is such a great character. He feels so authentic and real—a bit awkward, passionate but not pompous, and seeing both the best and the worst of the people around him, at times both simultaneously. His relationships feel crushingly genuine in the sense that we can feel him on the cusp of truly letting someone in, or feel someone else about to let him in, but it’s very rare for him to actually bridge that gap. He is an actor professionally, but also an actor personally, and a big thematic takeaway for me was the constant characters he is putting on in even his most intimate relationships, and his struggle to excavate his most real sense of self. Although Hollinghurst is white, I found his depiction of David’s biracial identity—and, particularly, David’s depiction of David’s biracial identity—to be quite refreshing. The racism that David experiences comes in many different forms, from strangers on the street to his white mother, and his feelings about it are complicated and only his own. He struggles to relate to his white family, friends, and colleagues due to his otherness, but also struggles in different ways to relate to his fully brown, black, or immigrant friends and colleagues. The book, however, does not take itself too seriously as a book about race—it’s never pedantic, and often quite lighthearted. The role that race plays is one of many gulfs that David must cross when trying to build intimacy and understanding with others. I am eager to see what writers and readers of color have to say about Hollinghurst’s work in this area.

My main issue with the book is in the other characters outside of David—I feel we do not get to really know them, or even understand how David sees them. I was hoping for more from Giles in particular, as he is such an interesting foil to David and it was a little disappointing to see him just disappear for long stretches of the book, only for him to suddenly reappear as a major character in the later third. And what of his early sexual experiences with David? I felt that was never really built on. Same with the teacher at Bampton he was close with as a kid. Many friends, colleagues, schoolmates, etc of David seemed to get lost in the wide span of time, which I suppose is realistic, but felt a little unfinished or dissatisfying.

My other concern is the gloss over that the AIDS crisis seemed to get in the book. I understand that not every gay novel set in the 80s is an AIDS novel, but it felt a little odd to just nearly miss it entirely while COVID gets its own moment in the spotlight. As an actor in London, and a gay actor in the alternative theatre scene, David’s social and professional circles would have been decimated by the disease. I’m less familiar with the history in the UK than I am the US, but I was half hoping for a TV appearance from Giles a la Reagan just to reestablish him as some sort of villain or foil. The erasure of this part of history, compared with the realism of Brexit and COVID, just felt a little disjointed to me.

Overall, I really did enjoy this book. It’s certainly a niche on its own, but a reflective and warm novel about aging and identity.

This was a very moving book. I liked getting a perspective that is far different from my own, it helps me to see the world in different ways and I truly appreciate it. The writing was good and the characters were explained well and the author made it feel like I knew these people.


Thank you to a NetGalley, the author, and the publisher for this ARC in exchange for my honest review, thank you!!!

It’s not simple: the life of a Black, gay man.

Dave Win was born in 1948. He never knew his father who was Burmese and killed before he entered this world. His mother, Avril, was English and a hard-working seamstress. They lived in a small community of England and Dave was fortunate to get a scholarship at a private school funded by Mark and Cara Hadlow whom became his friends and mentors.

Their son, Giles Hadlow, went to school with Dave. He was a disgraceful bully whom benefitted from his parent’s wealth and their support of the arts. Cara’s mother reminded me of the actress, Maggie Smith, in her movies with a no-nonsense attitude. She told Dave, who expressed his desire as a teenager to become an actor, that it may be difficult because of the way people will see the color of his skin. She said he would get lesser roles and should consider radio as an option. Nevertheless, Dave had a career doing what he loved: acting.

How does an author choose what to write about from one’s teenage years into his early 70s? The book is long and involved and shows how various people in our lives can influence us whether we like it or not. There were lots of plays, poetry, parties and of course: the people in Dave’s memoir. We don’t realize it so much until we are in our senior years and reflect back on the various scenes now twisted into our brains.

I found parts that I really enjoyed and others where I was drifting away. It’s clear that a great deal of thought went into writing this book that includes discrimination not only with Giles but also his mother who was a lesbian. I didn’t relate so much with the characters and yet, it’s a story that stays with you and makes an impression.

My thanks to Random House and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this book with an expected release date of October 8, 2024.

Thank you to Random House/Penguin for the ARC of the novel.

<em>Our Evenings</em> was a surprising novel to me. I had never read a book by Alan Hollinghurst before, so I didn't know what to expect when I was offered the opportunity to read this ARC. I read the blurb and knew the novel was about a gay man of color growing up in England in the 1960s, becoming an actor, and the obstacles he would have to overcome or deal with in his personal and professional life. But the blurb doesn't tell you about the actual writing, the feeling and depth of the novel. That's where I was pleasantly surprised by <em>Our Evenings</em>.

There is a line late in the novel when the protagonist David Win has stopped at a small churchyard with his husband and describes the scene before him as "an English mood, sedative as sunshine." I read that and I thought that was a great way to describe the sensation of reading this novel. Much happens in this novel, and there are many characters that appear throughtout, some return regularly and others linger in the shadows, appearing later as much older versions of themselves or recalled like ghosts in Win's memories of them. There are also some serious issues in the novel that the characters deal with, such as racism, hostility towards homosexuality, the role of art in society, and the disparity between the wealthy and the poor. Even Brexit and COVID make an appearance. This could be problematic if the reader loses track of the importance or meaning of, say, Woolpeck or Bampton. But the novel's pacing is never hurried or rushed; the writing lingers over setting, and the descriptions of the characters creates fully-formed "people" in the mind's eye. This helps the reader navigate the chapters in the novel, which can jump many years ahead in novelistic time. And it is this pacing, this writerly control that I think sets this "English" mood in the novel. Wrenching things happen, people suffer greatly, yet it is all told in this understated, patient way, "sedative as sunshine."

David Win is a great protagonist, and he tells his life story with honesty, frankness, and understated humor. By the end of the book, I felt like I had met an incredibly interesting person. His ability to deal with the events he does in the novel and remain true to himself is the heart of the novel. The suggestion from Hollinghurst the author is that perhaps that is all we can do in a world that is maddeningly uncontrollable.

Booker Prize winner, Hollinghurst’s new novel reads like a memoir, is well written, engaging, and his writing is compelling yet gentle. David Win is half English (mother) and half Burmese (father). The tale begins with his elite boarding school days as a scholarship student in the 1960s through current times when he is 72 years-old. David is from modest means, has never met his father, endured an English boarding school education, is an actor and is gay; with all that he realistically deals with being the focus of bigotry directed to him for being gay and mixed race. The novel never devolves to the exploitive or explicit, but does skillfully explore the love or friends, family, lovers, and partners. David is a cheeky and empathetic character.

Sensim Sine Sensu
Oh, well it’s Cicero, isn’t it…De Senectute. I suppose, sort of… “slowly, without sensing it, we grow old.” from Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst

Our Evenings was a lovely read that reminded me of Brideshead Revisited by Evelyn Waugh with its bittersweet nostalgia of remembering one’s youth and those one loved, and the importance of place in one’s emotional life.

The novel begins with the death of the man who changed David Win’s life. Mark Hadlow had inherited wealth and set up a scholarship to a private school which was awarded to David, a biracial son to unmarried mother who ran a dressmaking business. David never knew much about his Burmese father.

Fourteen-year-old David vacationed with the Hadlow’s at their country house. Giles Hadlow, the son, was a bully. An aunt was an actress and noted David’s nascent acting talent.

A great deal of the novel follows David’s time at school, then moves on to his career and the men he fell in love with. His race and color limits the roles he can play, although he is described as a beautiful man. All through his life, people ask him ‘where are you from’ and are perplexed when with David’s answer, an undercurrent of racism ever present.

David suffered Giles’ mistreatment at school and while he spent summers with the Hadlows. Giles’ political career brings prominence as an anti-immigrant leader. “He was an absolute shit,” David says years later, “He was a cheat and a bully, and very good at being both.” Giles becomes Minister for the Arts solely based on his family’s support of the arts, so he is ironically present when, late in life, David was Speaker in Vaughan Williams’ “An Oxford Elegy”.

Society’s attitude toward homosexuality is also ever present. When a schoolboy, David reads a poll stating that 93% thought that homosexuality required medical or psychiatric treatment. Past middle age, he found a life partner and they married. David’s mother became involved with a divorcee’ as a business and life partner.

The book’s title came from a piece of music David’s teacher at school had played for him, Janacek’s “Our Evenings”. “Our evenings are rarely our own,” David says, referring to the life of an actor.

After his mother’s death, and then Mark Hadlow’s passing, David realizes the brevity of days ahead of him. He writes his memoir of his life, which is this novel.

The lyricism and emotional attachment to David enchanted me as I read the novel. And at the end, I felt profound loss. Loss of this character, but also from the awareness of the limited evenings personally left to me, how quickly life passes by, how the world alters around us, for the better and the worse. The sundial at the Hadlow’s summer house warned David when he was fourteen, but he did not understand the message until late in life.

Dear reader, perhaps this story can be a warning to us.

Thanks to the publisher for a free book.

3.5 stars. The writing here is undeniably beautiful and the story is masterfully told. However, I think that for me the writing is far bigger and overshadows the actual story. As an example (and this does not come from the actual story here), why say "she walked into the room" when you can say "she gained entrance to the room as if pulled along on the gossamer wings of a swan". Yeah, we get the same thing - she's now in the room. It's a preference as to how you prefer to have that relayed to you, and I never really want to work that hard in my reading. I've come to realize I'm more of a lazy reader. It's certainly not the author's fault that I'm a simpleton, as the writing truly was so well done and the story was captivating.

For the first half of the book, I was honestly a bit bored -- I joked that my review would read "if you liked the Line of Beauty, you'll love this, because it's basically the same book." But once David, the main character, is out of school, the book becomes something entirely different, almost a series of short stories or vignettes about his life as a mixed-race actor and gay man in the UK from the sixties onward. The end is a shock and with it, the structure of the book makes much more sense. It does drag in bits and seems sort of disjointed -- characters that you think will feature prominently basically disappear as the book goes on. Still, it's worth getting into and hanging on until the end.

This is a fascinating look at David, a biracial charity student and Giles, a wealthy and sadistic one. David is at first a struggling actor who then grows into his talent but meets many challenges along the way. The book is a heartbreaking look at many things including homophobia and racism which is all too common in society even today. It was slow-going initially but once I got into it I found it really enjoyable!
Thanks to NetGalley for this ARC!

A beautiful story that reads like a memoir! You will become immersed in the main character's simple but extraordinary life. A very well written story about the highs and lows of life.

Perfect! I should not be writing a review after literally finishing up a novel but this book has taken all of my words. I don’t think there are enough words to describe how this book has made me feel. Thank you Mr. Hollinghurst for this story. Truly inspiring.

This is a beautiful story of generations of love in all, its iterations, from youth to the
‘Final sunset of life’ following the young people and blending with their friends and
fsmilies. This heartwarming story is written with beautiful prose. While it seemed
to begin slowly, I appreciated the book as the relationships developed and matured
and I was inexplicably drawn completely into the complicated relationships. From
triumph to leaving the world behind, this is a book no one should miss.
My sincere thanks to Random House via NetGalley for the download of this book
for review purposes.