A literary sensation and bestseller both in England and America, The Swimming-Pool Library is an enthralling, darkly erotic novel of homosexuality before the scourge of AIDS; an elegy, possessed of chilling clarity, for ways of life that can no longer be lived with impunity. "Impeccably composed and meticulously particular in its observation of everything" (Harpers & Queen), it focuses on the friendship of two men: William Beckwith, a young gay aristocrat who leads a life of privilege and promiscuity, and the elderly Lord Nantwich, an old Africa hand, searching for someone to write his biography and inherit his traditions.

I surely tried reading this book, but couldn't get into it.

The main character, after about 60 pages, felt to me like he was a 45 year old man. He turned out to be mid-twenties. I couldn't shake the feeling like I was reading something that didn't add up, so I decided not to finish the book.

It's been offered on the relay, and it's being sent off today!
Hope you enjoy this one better, snorkeling!

Found "The Swimmingpool Library" in my post-box yesterday. Thanks, Erbie, for sending it. And don't worry about the delay, it's arrived, that's what counts.

I'm definitely looking forward to reading it.

What the reviews said is right: Swimming Pool is a piece of literature. But its style is not quite my cup of tea. I can't get to like the "hero" (nor can I loathe him - the other way to really make me read a book) and the pace of the story is a bit too reigned in for my tastes.

As I said, this book is a bit too literary for my taste right now, so I'll send it to a dear friend of mine, wifey, who's much more into literature than me.