Paperback, 192 pages
English language
Published Oct. 3, 1995 by Vintage.
Into the rarefied atmosphere of the Hotel du Lac timidly walks Edith Hope, romantic novelist and holder of modest dreams. Edith has been exiled from home after embarrassing herself and her friends. She has refused to sacrifice her ideals and remains stubbornly single. But among the pampered women and minor nobility Edith finds Mr Neville, and her chance to escape from a life of humiliating spinsterhood is renewed ... Winner of the Booker Prize in 1984, 'Hotel du Lac' was described by The Times as 'A smashing love story. It is very romantic. It is also humorous, witty, touching and formidably clever'.
Ich mochte den Stil (heißt: es standen keine störenden Wörter drin), und das Setting wirkte so, als würde darin demnächst etwas passieren, zum Beispiel "Im verschlafenen Schweizer Hotel wird jemand umgebracht und alle haben ein Motiv". Aber es passierte bis zur letzten Seite NICHTS, Frauen in Strickjacken denken über die Ehe nach, sonst rein gar nichts.
Has some of the funniest, wittiest descriptions of characters I've ever encountered in prose. The first third or so is just masterful. Problem is, I thought the main character's concerns were too 'domestic' or dare I use the word, 'bourgeois'. Getting married, living a quite life, being social with middle and upper middle class people, all that stuff. I feel her concerns are too remote for me. So the middle portion of the novel kind of sagged and it was hard to maintain my interest. Thankfully, it did pick up at the later part near the end. I thought it was a good ending.
Ever read a book you've only sort of heard of but didn't know much about until the author died? You read it and you feel guilty, or sheepish somehow. It isn't that it would have made a difference to the author if you'd read it while they were alive and well—the fact that you heard about them after their death means they had some success—but you creepy about it nonetheless.
Anita Brookner died March 10, 2016, at age 87. Her Hotel du Lac won the Booker Prize in 1984 and remained her most notable book. It's just 184 pages long, but dense with ideas and terrific writing. When you finish it you feel like you've read a much longer book. She had that way of describing things that makes you go, "Exactly!" and you wonder why you've never read something like it before. Read it slowly.
The plot's a simple …
Ever read a book you've only sort of heard of but didn't know much about until the author died? You read it and you feel guilty, or sheepish somehow. It isn't that it would have made a difference to the author if you'd read it while they were alive and well—the fact that you heard about them after their death means they had some success—but you creepy about it nonetheless.
Anita Brookner died March 10, 2016, at age 87. Her Hotel du Lac won the Booker Prize in 1984 and remained her most notable book. It's just 184 pages long, but dense with ideas and terrific writing. When you finish it you feel like you've read a much longer book. She had that way of describing things that makes you go, "Exactly!" and you wonder why you've never read something like it before. Read it slowly.
The plot's a simple one. Edith, a British romantic novelist who at 39 is on the cusp of what in the early 80s was considered middle age, spends a few weeks in a Swiss hotel where she's been directed to stay after doing something bad, which you find out over halfway through the novel and don't worry, it's not an atrocious crime or anything. The hotel is a summer place and the season is over, fall taking hold and even hints of winter.
This is not an upbeat story. You don't read it because you want to read something "life affirming" or "hear warming." You read it because you want to read something good.
