The Love Hexagon

Sutcliffe deals with six young Londoners: three men and three women. All are somehow unsatisfied with their lives, but none of them are able to articulate quite what it is they are looking for. As a game of sexual musical chairs develops and a variety of lusts and betrayals both create and destroy relationships, we get to know Sutcliffe's sharply-drawn protagonists very well. We are even allowed to change our minds about them--something that is not common, even in novels considerably longer and more sombre than this. From the first conversation between Guy and Lisa (the first couple we meet), in which everything from omelettes to the voiceovers in Goodfellas are up for discussion, through a pub argument on the advantages of having sex with older women, Sutcliffe has our attention nailed to his quirky narrative. Although the requisite scene-setting is handled with equal adroitness (such as the offices of the struggling independent TV company Elemental Productions, for which Lisa and Josh, another participant in the La Ronde style erotic shenanigans, work), Sutcliffe's real strength is in the dialogue, such as Guy and his friend Graham discussing sex:

"The way she did it was incredible." "Why? What did she do?" "It wasn't what she did--it was how she did it. She is ... like ... older." "Older than what?" "Than us." "She's older? This is what you find so horny? That she's old?" "Not really old--it's not a necrophilia thing. She's just ... like ... 40 or something. Well-preserved. She's mature. I tell you, she makes Zoe seem like a baby. In every way. I mean--people our age are ... are just ... there's nothing to us. All we've got going for us is the fact that we haven't yet gone wrinkly."

I found it very easy to read and of good humour. It is about relationships and acceptance & rejection between six twenty-somethings in London. It analyses relationships in a light hearted yet serious way at the same time.

As fellow reviewers have said, the ending is rather formulaic and the book rather fizzles out but overall the book is a good, easy to read and interesting book about relationships and emotions


The Best Sutcliffe Read YET   June 14, 2000
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

... and let's face it, that's saying something. I've just come back from holiday (in Morocco, since you ask), where I spent two days glued to this book, ignoring all my friends. I laughed so much that they all insisted on reading it too.

The Love Hexagon is the painful, true-to-life and hilarious account of group of mates who start off with completely the wrong people. It's perfect and so accurate on the awful no-persons-land of early- to mid-twenties, when we're all floundering around wondering what job to do and who to get together with.

I've read his other books, that I also love, but I think this is his best yet. There are lots of books around at the moment on this suject but no one else can hold a candle to him.

Trust me, it's just brilliant.


Not worth the time   June 9, 2000
 0 out of 1 found this review helpful

His first two books were v good but this one was far too predictable and contrived. The ending is obvious and the characters unappealing.