The Swimming-Pool Library by Alan Hollinghurst

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The Swimming-Pool Library was published at the height of the AIDS crisis and the same year as Section 28, but is set on the eve of that storm, and through Charles throws you back even further in time. It is an unapologetic account of gay men living sexual lives – for a mainstream novel to tell that story, especially at the moment in time, was powerful and radical. But how it was received in that moment may not be how we (I) receive it now.

It is a story told by privileged white men – they fuck their way through life at Winchester College, life at Oxford, in Charles’ case life as a Colonial administrator, in William’s life a young man with no need of a job. It is a story told by white men about their black lovers. A story told by rich men about their working class lovers. All novels are a story told – we need to acknowledge the status of the story teller – but that is not a reason to “cancel” Hollinghurst – this story is valid but we need to be alert to hear the stories of black men about their lovers, of working class men about their lovers – because those stories are also valid and should also be being heard. We can’t blame Hollinghurt that they are not.

I started to read this on the plane home from Gran Canaria – and the sexual liberation of the early 80s recalled in the book, in the context of PREP and U=U, now feels much more familiar than the context in which it was published. The power of the book is reduced because it is now holding a candle in the light rather than the dark. What seems easy now seemed impossible then. Across the LGBT+ community there is still a need for manifestos of liberation – it is just that rich white men should no longer be the focus of attention.