MISSION AND OMISSION IN ALAN HOLLINGHURST’S “THE LINE OF BEAUTY”
MISSION AND OMISSION IN ALAN HOLLINGHURST’S “THE LINE OF BEAUTY”

Summary/Abstract: Alan Hollinghurst’s three major ‘missions’ in “The Line of Beauty”- the political and economic environment in the 1980s and Thatcherism, difficult family relationships, and, most importantly, the LGBTQ+ community’s arising consciousness and, implicitly, the serious consequences of careless homosexual interactions and drug addiction (among which the catastrophic emergence of AIDS).While telling his and the Feddens’ story, and being the only narrator too, Nick Guest, the Jamesian scholar subtly chooses to omit events and statements – in a true Jamesian manner. The gaps he leaves behind paradoxically enrich and embellish the narrative and, at the same time, keep the reader constantly and eagerly connected, just like in Henry James’ novels. Thus, ambiguity and a faithful depiction of reality go hand in hand.

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