It’s so funny how the British archetype of a middle class student goes to a prestigious uni, meets an enticing posh boy and his family, becomes enchanted with the idea of luxury and sophistication, only to be rejected as an intruder at the end repeats itself in British lit (I’m looking at you Brideshead Revisited). I had no idea that this book

would end up being about AIDS, but I think it was done really well.

I’m glad I read Hollinghurst’s afterword about intentionally making Nick an apolitical narrator in a political moment, because otherwise I would’ve felt slighted by such a disinterested protagonist, but luckily I know that that was the point. But does that save it? Points off because I never really felt like I was rooting for Nick, even though the story itself was interesting enough to keep me going