Growing up mixed-race, gay, with a single mum in 1960s rural England leaves a lot to be desired. Yet, that’s the reality of English-Burmese actor David Win, the protagonist of In Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst. David looks back and reflects on life at his scholarship funded boarding school, his gay love affairs and budding acting career, all seeped in homophobia, snobbery and racism. Despite these explosive subject matters, I’m sorry to report that I found the novel lacking. I never expected to use the word ‘tame’ and ‘Hollinghurst’ in the same sentence, but that, Hollinghurst fans, is, unfortunately, what we have here.
Yes, there is some gay sex but it’s hinted at rather than graphic and beautifully described. (I’m puzzled as to why some have found this offensive…). In fact, the entire book is beautifully written. Hollinghurst is famed for his description of micro moments – the exchange of a look, the glimpse through a window – in which so little happens on the surface, but so much underneath.
It’s the era of stiff upper lips and pretence, most things of substance are never discussed, such as David’s absent father, his mother Avril’s increasingly close relationship with her business partner Esme and the racism David meets everywhere. Avril and Esme’s romantic relationship is one of the highlights of the novel. Battling small town homophobia and single mum stigma, Avril and Esme quietly go about making a life together, sometimes at a high cost to David.
Despite Hollinghurst incredible skills as a writer, which made me stick with the book for nearly 500 pages, I found the story lacking in tension. Maybe the author has mellowed with age or maybe the publisher’s choice of blurb misled me. The cover of Our Evenings gives the impression it’s a story about David’s relationship with Giles, a fellow boarding school pupil and the son of David’s wealthy scholarship funder, who turns into a prominent Brexiteer and Conservative minister. In fact, Giles is very much peripheral to the story. It feels like the publisher gambled on readers greedy for a feisty Brexit story to sell books. I clearly fell for it.
In Our Evenings by Alan Hollinghurst is published by Picador, 496 pages.
