Our Evenings: A Novel

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars | 622 ratings

Price: 19.69

Last update: 12-23-2024


About this item

From the internationally acclaimed winner of the Booker Prize, “an engrossing tale of one man’s personal odyssey as he grows up, framed in exquisite language” (The New York Times Book Review)

“The finest novel yet from one of the great writers of our time.”—The Guardian

A PUBLISHERS WEEKLY BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR

Did I have a grievance? Most of us, without looking far, could find something that had harmed us, and oppressed us, and unfairly held us back. I tried not to dwell on it, thought it healthier not to, though I’d lived my short life so far in a chaos of privilege and prejudice.

Dave Win, the son of a Burmese man he’s never met and a British dressmaker, is thirteen years old when he gets a scholarship to a top boarding school. With the doors of elite English society cracked open for him, heady new possibilities emerge, even as Dave is exposed to the envy and viciousness of his wealthy classmates.

Alan Hollinghurst’s new novel follows Dave from the 1960s on—through the possibilities that remained open for him, and others that proved to be illusory: as a working-class brown child in a decidedly white institution; a young man discovering queer culture and experiencing his first, formative love affairs; a talented but often overlooked actor, on the road with an experimental theater company; and an older Londoner whose late-in-life marriage fills his days with an unexpected sense of happiness and security.

From “one of our most gifted writers” (The Boston Globe), Our Evenings sweeps listeners from our past to our present through the beauty, pain, and joy of one deeply observed life.


Top reviews from the United States

  • Charles Michener
    5.0 out of 5 stars Inner Truths
    Reviewed in the United States on October 28, 2024
    To label Alan Hollinghurst's novels "gay" or "queer" fiction is misplaced. Their protagonists are invariably same-sex oriented, but the world they must navigate is not confined by sexual boundaries. Hollinghurst's fiction belongs squarely in the great tradition of the English novel, of Fielding, Austen, Eliot, Dickens, and Anthony Powell - novels less concerned with the working out of an aberrant individual's psychology than with how that individual rises or falls within society, specifically English society. The hero of "Our Evenings" has a harder time of it than his predecessors. He is David Win, the mongrel offspring of a Burmese father who has vanished without a trace and an English mother who works as a dressmaker. Through academic precocity, David is suddenly elevated out of modest circumstances into the privileged realm of a good public (private) school, which opens many doors, not least matriculation at Oxford, while challenging him to establish a place in a world that will always regard him as a curiosity. Shrewdly, David becomes an actor, an esteemed supporting player of serious drama ranging from Shakespeare to experimental moderns, a chameleon whose identity and social position are secure behind the footlights. Though he is unflinchingly gay, finding emotional security with a loving partner takes a good deal longer, but find it he does. Hollinghurst fleshes out these bare bones of a life with his usual aplomb, seamlessly mixing sharply etched supporting characters with knowing observations of the obdurate English class system and lyrically vivid depictions of the English landscape. All this we've enjoyed before. What distinguishes "Our Evenings" from the previous novels is a warmth, a mellowness even, a curb on the brittleness that has sometimes diminished Hollinghurst's glittering prose. David Win, a quiet hero, is this fine novelist's most moving creation to date. The pleasure of his company has stayed with me a long time.
  • Sandra Iler Kirkland
    4.0 out of 5 stars A Life In England
    Reviewed in the United States on November 24, 2024
    This is the story of David Win, an Englishman whose life stretched from the late 1940's to the present. David is the son of an English mother who is a dressmaker and a Burmese father whom he never met. David and his mother live in a small English town but his intelligence and hard work nets him a scholarship at a private school. He meets his benefactors who remain in his life for the entire span. Their son, who is at the same school, is a bully who later rises in government and is famous for his Brexit stand.

    David has known he is gay since he was a boy but at that time, there is not much opportunity to be open about it. We learn of the various loves of his life but they all occur after his time at university. David has also shone as an actor and makes that his career. We learn about not only David's life but the life and changes of England during this time period.

    Alan Hollinghurst has won a Booker with his 2004 novel The Line Of Beauty. His writing pulls in the reader even if huge events don't take place. It takes an extraordinary writer to make the telling of a life interesting and Hollinghurst does exactly that. The reader is fascinated by David's life over the decades, his loyalty to his family and friends and his quest for love that is rewarded by a husband he ends his time with. This book is recommended for readers of literary fiction.
  • Honor Moore
    5.0 out of 5 stars A great, devastating and beautiful novel
    Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2024
    If you read for story, if you read for language, if you read for beauty and to be transported, Our Evenings will stay with you. This is a book that takes place over 50 years but which manages to hold its reader in a present so vibratingly true and so meticulously rendered that you forget you’re reading …I found myself marveling aloud…
  • B Cochran
    5.0 out of 5 stars Waugh + Wodehouse+ Forster + T = Hollinghurst
    Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2024
    A long book, but a quick read. If you like the idea of these authors updated for the 21st century, you'll love this.
  • Wally Fay
    3.0 out of 5 stars good. but not best
    Reviewed in the United States on November 22, 2024
    Starts beautifully then slowly fades
    The main character is sketchy
    The best writing is about the mother
    But quite touching in spots
  • Bookedup
    4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant writing, mediocre plot
    Reviewed in the United States on November 17, 2024
    Alan Hollinghurst is, undeniably, a brilliant writer. I can't think of a contemporary author who can craft and twist and sweep an utterly perfect sentence like him. None. But he continues to write these rather dull novels, wrapped up in his gorgeous writing, and it makes me feel sad that he's wasting his talent on such mundane material. I'm quite sure this author would never stoop to reading a review on Amazon, but if were to do so, here is my request: apply your unique talents to stories that are compelling beyond the brilliance of your technical skill. Please.
  • james smith
    5.0 out of 5 stars well written
    Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2024
    the writing truly made me feel as if i were there. a story that was full of feeling.
  • Ralph Lockwood
    5.0 out of 5 stars Hollinghurst NEVER fails to engage, on every page
    Reviewed in the United States on October 29, 2024
    Alan Hollinghurst's special gift for the language - AGAIN - takes the breath away. One does not merely read, but "inhales" each of his works ... eagerly anticipating the next novel. Viva Hollinghurst!

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