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The White Hotel

3.82 of 5 stars 3.82 · rating details · 1,961 ratings · 173 reviews

It is a dream of electrifying eroticism and inexplicable violence, recounted by a young woman to her analyst, Sigmund Freud. It is a horrifying yet restrained narrative of the Holocaust. It is a searing vision of the wounds of our century, and an attempt to heal them. Interweaving poetry and case history, fantasy and historical truth-telling, The White Hotel is a modern cl...more

Published (first published 1981)

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Jan 15, 2010 Sally rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: not-for-everybody, randomly-own

Well, that was weird.
It went from intensely sexual, to clinical, to narrative, to horrific, to just plain bizarre.

Spoiler: I think this might be a spoiler, but I wasn't exactly sure what was going on for the last 20 pages, so it might not be. It seemed like everyone was in heaven, or some kind of after-world, and the protagonist (I use that term veeeeeeeeeeery loosely) and her mother were taking a walk while reuniting and talking about a threesome witnessed by the child protagonist of her moth...more Well, that was weird.
It went from intensely sexual, to clinical, to narrative, to horrific, to just plain bizarre.

Spoiler: I think this might be a spoiler, but I wasn't exactly sure what was going on for the last 20 pages, so it might not be. It seemed like everyone was in heaven, or some kind of after-world, and the protagonist (I use that term veeeeeeeeeeery loosely) and her mother were taking a walk while reuniting and talking about a threesome witnessed by the child protagonist of her mother, mother's twin sister, and mother's sister's husband. The protagonist gets tired, dizzy, and so she and her mother decide to take a sit down to rest. The mother whips out her mammary and offers daughter a suckle "to revive" herself. This goes on for about 3/4 a page, and then the mother leans over to suckle from the daughter's breast. Then, both refreshed, they get up and continue with their walk.

This is only one of maybe 8 adult breast-suckling scenes in this book.

And I give it three stars why?
Not for all the breast milk drinking, that's for sure.

Well, there were some really intense passages detailing the confusion of the initial days of the Jewish "relocation" that happened when Germany invaded Kiev. The reader is just as uncertain as the protagonist as the scene unfurls. She wakes early, feeds her son, and heads out with her suitcase full of all her worldly possessions believing they can catch a good seat on the train that will take them to Palestine. Instead they are ... well, I won't go into that.

There was another entire section about the Viennese Opera which seemed to be too brief once it had past. The protagonist is hired from afar to replace Vera, who had fallen and broken her arm (but was also pregnant and couldn't continue through the run of the performance)she receives lukewarm reviews from the Viennese critics, but goes through with the run. This turns out, in retrospect, to be the highlight of her late-started career. Earlier she had been a ballerina, but got pregnant, quit the ballet, and then lost the baby.

Before this section Lisa, in a section confusingly titled "Frau Anna G." relates her dreams and fantasies to Sigmund Freud, who, despite her resistance, analyzes the heck out of her psyche. This goes on and on, and was mostly interesting to me because of last year's lit theory class. Without that background I might have been tempted to skim this section.

Now that I'm finished I would say the entire book reads with the confusion and blur of an old woman looking back on her life. Yet as I passed through each section things appear as though it happening at the time - the young, sexual, passion-filled pages depict the consciousness of that person at that time, for instance. Only later, through psychoanalysis with Freud himself does Anna/Lisa see her lies, her self-betrayals, and what was real vs. what was imagined.

Where in the world did I hear about this book? Well, it has always stuck in my head the scene in Prelude to a Kiss where guy and girl are first meeting one another, and he tells her he's "been reading" The White Hotel and she gets it, gets him, and they fall more in love. I wondered why, what about that book could so clearly define a person's preferences and personal tastes? That movie itself was disconcerting, but elements like that tend to stick in my mind.
So when I found it at a flea market (along with a pristine Michael Jackson Off the Wall LP and Madonna True Blue LP and a VHS copy of A Beautiful Mind) I wanted to give it a go. It took me nearly 9 months to pick it up.

I'm not sorry I read it, but I might not go around talking about it to just anyone either. I feel kind of dirty now. (less)

11 likes · like · see review

May 20, 2011 K.D. Oliveros rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to K.D. by: 501 Must Read Books

Shelves: 501

Strange book.

Or maybe I am just not equipped to understand everything.

It is composed of a prologue and 6 chapters in almost different forms and themes: (1) epistolary introducing the main characters; (2) erotic fantasies told in poems; (3) erotic journal in first-person narrative; (4) case history in third-person plain storytelling; (5) clinical psychoanalysis; (6) holocaust; (7) outright bizarre conclusion.

I hate some parts of it not because it is boring but it is hard to understand. I had a 3...more Strange book.

Or maybe I am just not equipped to understand everything.

It is composed of a prologue and 6 chapters in almost different forms and themes: (1) epistolary introducing the main characters; (2) erotic fantasies told in poems; (3) erotic journal in first-person narrative; (4) case history in third-person plain storytelling; (5) clinical psychoanalysis; (6) holocaust; (7) outright bizarre conclusion.

I hate some parts of it not because it is boring but it is hard to understand. I had a 3-unit course in Basic Psychology in college and all I can remember now about Sigmund Freud, which is a fictional character here and who narrated #5 above, is his interpretation of dreams: that dreams are repressed emotions and that if you dream of a snake or anything elongated it means you are longing for a penis and if you dream of a box or anything that resembles a container, is that you want to fuck a pussy. I also remember hearing about Oedipus complex which means any emotions or ideas that we keep in our subconscious. I am sure, there are other brilliant things that Sigmund Freud said but I just forgot or actually did not understand them.

So, if you are a psychology graduate, practitioner or interested on it, this book is for you.

Anyway, I still liked this book basically for D. M. Thomas' strange imagination which is similar to Elias Canetti in his opus Auto-da-Fe especially in #3 and #4. Then the clinical psychoanalysis, being full of medical terms, reminded me of a recent read: Rebecca Skloot's The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. For a while, I thought that I was reading the real life Sigmund Freud (the scientist) only to find out in Wiki that this is 100% fiction and Sigmund Freud (the character here), did not have a similar patient during his life time. Of course, I would be a hypocrite if I say that I did not enjoy #2 and #3 that have all these erotic tales beautifully narrated in prose and poetry. See, it is better, i.e., healthier, to express myself in the open than to hide it in my subconscious thereby adding something to my oedipus complex.

This tells a story of a 29-y/o woman, Anna G./Lisa suffering from acute psychosomatic pain in her left breast and womb and so she consults Sigmund Freud. So, during the course of the treatment, D. M. Thomas gives the background of the woman, her family history, part of which is that burning White Hotel where her adulterous mother got burned while having sex with her uncle. Then of course the harrowing inclusion of her experience during the Holocaust provides a pivotal point later in the story.

Overall, I liked this book but I wish I knew more about Sigmund Freud to appreciate everything so I did not get fixated on the yummy erotic parts ha ha. (less)

9 likes · like · see review

Dec 26, 2007 Jennie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: english-major-books, holocaust-books

Really scandalous book that blends eroticism with violence and psychology to portray the horrors of the Holocaust. My English major roommate recommended it to me as his favorite book when I was working on my undergrad. After the first few chapters I was a little disturbed for him, haha. But when I reached the end I realized the powerful effect of the White Hotel. Entrancing, hypnotic, outrageous and multi-layered, this is a book you will not soon forget.

11 likes · like · see review

Jul 31, 2011 Paul rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: novels

There's a moment in Ernest Hemingway's novel To Have and Have Not which I thought was a real zinger at the time - we have been following Harry and his wife and their relationship intimately - they have some big financial problems but he loves her, and that's always good when a middle aged guy loves his wife don't you think, so you see her from his point of view. Then later you have a different narrator, some other guy, and he's driving along, maybe on his way to see Harry, and he sees this rando...more

8 likes · like · see review

Oct 10, 2012 Ren rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. It was with great difficulty that I begrudgingly picked up this book and rushed to finish it, because it was my required reading for my Literary Criticism finals paper. I had approached my professor with the idea that I wanted to review and write of a novel that involved psychoanalysis. He recommended me this book.

What had endeavored me to finish the book was that it was filled to the brim with everything I had ever admired about the science of psychology and psychoanalysis. It was rife with per...more

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Jul 30, 2008 Mike rated it 3 of 5 stars

Quite a bit of this book is erotic, except for the bit where Jews (including our female protagonist and those she loves) get cruelly murdered holocaust-style. The author, a man, uses his female lead's voice to describe her hallucinatory fucking; he's a mighty apt transvestite. The author, born a Methodist, describes in graphic detail the slaughter of Jews; he ripped that stuff off from Anatoly Kuznetsov. That lousy quack Freud makes several appearances in the story, playing someone who mattered....more

3 likes · like · see review

Aug 30, 2010 Kate added it

What can I say about a book that left me speechless for so long? It's front-loaded with graphic, morbid, aggressive, detached sexuality. I should clarify that the sexuality itself isn't morbid in nature but it's contrasted with morbid imagery occurring elsewhere simultaneously. Just when you think you've been offended enough, it switches gears. I read this book for my literary theory class and psychoanalysis describes this novel in which Feud himself is a character. It is not a novel about sex....more

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Mar 26, 2009 David rated it 5 of 5 stars

Be careful picking this one up is not for the feint of heart, but if you need a "sense of proportion" in your life and a paradigm shift in thinking would do you good, give it a go. Read other peoples nicely crafted reviews if you want but I think its best to pick it up without a clue what its about.

4 likes · like · see review

Jan 04, 2009 Pris robichaud rated it 5 of 5 stars

Yhe Vision of Love Through Salvation, 19 Feb 2007

"Thomas takes us beyond Freud, beyond Eros and Thanatos, and thus challenges the very substance of the Freudian text. Within the analyses and, he suggests, buried within her individual neurosis, is the subtext of history--the Final Solution. And beyond the horror is the transcendent vision of salvation through love in the mythical state of Israel. In this bold, intellectually challenging novel, Thomas goes beyond both history and historical ficti...more
Yhe Vision of Love Through Salvation, 19 Feb 2007

"Thomas takes us beyond Freud, beyond Eros and Thanatos, and thus challenges the very substance of the Freudian text. Within the analyses and, he suggests, buried within her individual neurosis, is the subtext of history--the Final Solution. And beyond the horror is the transcendent vision of salvation through love in the mythical state of Israel. In this bold, intellectually challenging novel, Thomas goes beyond both history and historical fiction: he explores the shadowy realm of perception and perceiver with breathtaking vision and artistry." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review

'The White Hotel' is an extraordinary book. It was given the highest recommendation by my best friend, and it is a read I will never forget. It is taken from the case history of Lisa Erdman, an early patient of Sigmund Freud; the book explores her case of sexual hysteria and finds the way to self destructiveness. The scenes with Lisa and Dr.Freud are fascinating. They take her back into childhood and into her dreams. Lisa's erotic dreams are almost visions. They are premonitions to Lisa of death and destruction. Freud helps Lisa to resume her normal life as an opera singer, and we are brought into the world of opera as Lisa finds it. She remarries and settles in the Ukraine with her husband and step-son, and then the unraveling begins. Their harrowing adventures will leave you on the edge. As life as Lisa knows it begins to crumble, so do we.

"Lisa's story is told three times. Once, as a long letter of erotic ramblings by a psychotic, once in image steeped poetry, and finally, as narrative prose, in the dry tone of a doctor discussing a case, complete with musings and asides. By the end of the third rendition, the reader begins to understand something the eminent psychologist never will. That Anna is not only a product of, but a metaphor for the collective fall of European consciousness into madness that still scars the entire century."
T.Rex

'The White Hotel' is much like a mystery, and we are part of the unraveling. I was filled with melancholy and a dream like stance while reading this book. I have not read a book that is so well written. and at the same time lays groundwork of the extraordinary. A trip for Lisa becomes a trip that we will not soon forget. Highly Recommended. prisrob 2-18-07

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Jan 22, 2013 Mareika rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: disturbing, favorites

This book is not for everyone, but only due to explicit content and disturbing violence, not due to its message. It's not a feel-good novel, but it's a novel that gets your affective response kicking into high gear -- the type of novel that can change the world, because it makes you question how you think.

The White Hotel is creative, thought-provoking, and emotionally scarring. I didn't actually realize I liked it until I had put it down and thought/talked about it for a few days - Thomas tells...more

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Oct 11, 2012 Laura rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

When I attempted to read The White Hotel when it first came out, I was 14 and unable to get through it. I knew there was something much bigger at work but I couldn’t grasp the apparent profundity of the work. Now, at 45 years of age, I have read it from beginning to end and it is a truly spectacular piece of writing! I read for two hours before bed last night, unable to put the book down until I finished the last chapter, crying quietly. This book moved me as few others have and I am a voracious...more When I attempted to read The White Hotel when it first came out, I was 14 and unable to get through it. I knew there was something much bigger at work but I couldn’t grasp the apparent profundity of the work. Now, at 45 years of age, I have read it from beginning to end and it is a truly spectacular piece of writing! I read for two hours before bed last night, unable to put the book down until I finished the last chapter, crying quietly. This book moved me as few others have and I am a voracious reader.

I have so many questions, thoughts and feelings concerning the book but it’s going to take me a while to formulate them and a while to digest the book fully. It’s a book I can see myself reading again and again and getting something different, something more, out of it each time I take it up.

I just read about the synchronicities Mr. Thomas observed during the writing of The White Hotel and during my reading of his masterpiece, I couldn’t help but see the book as an exploration of the interconnectedness of everything. I love how he writes about the scent of pine (and quite synchronistically, when I opened the book to look for a passage about the pine trees, the book opened to the exact page for which I was looking!) and how Lisa finds comfort when she is able to see herself as having a continued existence. There is no past, present or future but a continuum on which we, as human beings, exist. Even death and the afterlife are blips on this continuum.

In certain parts of the book, I had an almost palpable sense of horror, fear, terror, and nausea. My pulse beat wildly but I still continued to savor every word, knowing that I would go into my 10 year-old son’s room where he was already asleep and check on him and give him an extra goodnight kiss before turning off the light to go to sleep. I couldn’t help but think of Kurtz in Conrad’s Heart of Darkness and his final exclamation: The horror! The horror!

Thank you, Mr. Thomas, for writing such a life-changing, eye-opening novel— a novel that perhaps existed before it was written and published and a novel that will continue to exist ever after. I am also reminded of a couple of lines from Wordsworth:
In the faith that looks through death,
In years that bring the philosophic mind. (less)

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Nov 02, 2010 Michael Armijo rated it 3 of 5 stars

The author seems un-focused...or is it just 'me'?

It's true that fiction can amaze as well as inform. This was extremely well written (it was a National Bestseller way back in the early 1980s--after all), but it seemed like an outline for four different books. One part seems like a staging for a woman who is on sexual overdrive and needs to attend a sexaholic seminar. Another part intertwines the interesting correspondence between a patient and her Dr. Sigmund Freud. The third potential book deal...more

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Oct 22, 2009 Steve rated it 5 of 5 stars

At the time of his conception of this novel, D.M. Thomas's thought process must have been along these lines:

I have yet to encounter any novel from any era that has done justice to the complexity of the human personality. I shall make my own attempt to portray a human personality true to its profound complexity, which to this point has been beyond the imaginings of other novelists.

The result is our immersion in the personality of Frau Lisa Erdman, an opera singer and at the outset a patient of Si...more

5 likes · like · see review

Oct 30, 2010 Mitchell rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I read this when it first came out and it made a huge impression on me. I would curious to see if it would still have the same effect almost thirty years later. It did. Dizzyingly powerful.

I feel my analysis from back then still holds true. The book's perspective on the life of Lisa Erdmann constantly expands, and mostly through the use of literary forms.

1- The densest section is the first, written in verse. I take this to be the 'true' depiction of the main character. A poem is the author talki...more

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Jul 10, 2010 James rated it 4 of 5 stars

Never mind how I managed to have this on the shelf in the first place, upon learning of its significance to Susan Orleans The White Hotel immediately jumped rank and became The Next Read.

It was not a contentious promotion.

To Susan Orleans, veritable author of The Orchid Thief, The White Hotel is one of 40 books that changed her world.

To me, veritable scribe of hope and vengeance, The White Hotel is one of the better books I’ve read in a while.

I’m not done with it yet and am not holding out much...more

2 likes · like · see review

Jun 03, 2013 Blaire rated it 2 of 5 stars

Most of this book bored me, I guess because I find the Freudian stuff dry as dust. The structure is interesting, consisting as it does of sections that are related but a little disjointed. Really, this seemed like two books with the ending section maybe being a separate novella. The first part is essentially a case study about a sexual hysteric that I thought was ridiculous, although some of the imagery in the first section was interesting. The second part was about the Holocaust. There was some...more

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May 24, 2012 James rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, psychology, psychoanalysis, booker-short-list

This is a story of eroticism and inexplicable violence, recounted by a young woman to her analyst, Sigmund Freud. The book's first three movements consist of the erotic fantasies and case-history of one of the novelist's conception of Sigmund Freud's female patients, overlapping, expanding, and gradually turning into almost normal narrative. But then the story takes a different course with the convulsions of the century, and becomes a testament of the Holocaust, harrowing and chillingly authenti...more

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Sep 26, 2007 Shannon Paul rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was way too young to read this when I did; however, what is done is done. I'm not so sure that I would still rate this quite so highly, but it left a very big impression on my teenage mind that allowed me to contemplate abstractions of behavior and especially sexuality that has been beneficial. I plan to revisit this again some time.

1 like · like · see review

Feb 06, 2013 Dean Cummings rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: classics

This novel by D.M. Thomas is in itself a work of art, or more specifically, a tapestry that is composed of refreshingly different styles of writing to complete a unified artistic creation. Despite its scope and poetic grandeur, this book would only appeal to those blessed with a liberal mind, considering the first two sections of the novel are written in free-verse poetry depicting graphic sexual episodes that becomes the favourite past-time at the White Hotel. From here, the novel turns towards...more

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Jun 22, 2009 Deborah Edwards rated it 4 of 5 stars

I read this book many years ago, but still recall the gut-wrenching impact it had on me. The first part of the book is cool and dreamlike, descending into Freudian themes of sexuality that become almost too much to bear. There were times when I thought I might not be able to read on any further, but I did, and with each change in tone the book became more and more disturbing, and yet more and more of a revelation. The ending is hugely disturbing and incredibly powerful, and in a very rare occurr...more

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May 18, 2013 Justin Day rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorite-books

The cool thing about reading is you can read books from the first novel you ever picked up in 1986 to the present and then go back and read a book from 1981 and be blown away by how crazy it is.

If it weren't for the terrific imagination and unmistakable flourish that DM Thomas weaves into each of the chapters of this story, you'd think it written piecemeal by a jury of authors.

So incredible how this story goes from objective Correspondence letters to psychedelic poetry to 3rd person bizarro pros...more

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Jun 19, 2012 Alison rated it 4 of 5 stars

I love a good erotic novel. I don't like the cheesey, easily written, somewhat immature erotic novels of late that are cookie cutter and really not that spicey if you really admit it. "The White Hotel" has that lovely honesty to it because of the erotic tales mixed with the therapy the main character is going through. The ending is surprising and tragic, but for some reason I feel like it's fitting. Not one thing defines us. We can be erotic, maybe emotionally messed up and need to see a therapi...more

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Aug 11, 2009 hirtho rated it 2 of 5 stars

this book is sorta sexy... (if you consider period-fingering in front of fellow diners and then eating rare steak sexy) (which i guess i didnt before i read it, but it kinda is)

finished:
Well, I wasn't as taken with the finale as everyone else seems to be, I was much more into the layers of the first 2/3rds (3/4ths?) with the case studies and correspondence and phantasmagoric surrealist stretches. Something about the tension between Freud and the main character is more fascinating for me than the...more

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Apr 29, 2011 Heidi Campbell rated it 4 of 5 stars

I was both in awe of the writer's style & also haunted by this novel when I read it...(first published in 1981, and read it soon after.) I Haven't read any others by D.M. Thomas but at the time, it left a lasting impression.

Here is the "Goodreads" summary:

"It is a dream of electrifying eroticism and inexplicable violence, recounted by a young woman to her analyst, Sigmund Freud. It is a horrifying yet restrained narrative of the Holocaust. It is a searing vision of the wounds of our centur...more

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Nov 27, 2012 Andrew added it

Shelves: british-fiction

Hallucinatory, mind-bending, prurient, how else to describe a book like this? It oscillates through such a wide emotional and stylistic range that, despite its slenderness, it can feel difficult to even keep up with the damn thing. It's five steps ahead of you.

Get Breton, Bataille, and Günter Grass together, and place them in an almost sentimental, lost Middle European setting of opera singers and aristocratic childhoods and summers at Saint-Tropez and Freud as a trendy young theorist, and you p...more

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Mar 04, 2012 ilike merey rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-interrupted-will-finish, sexxxxxxx

I used to be more patient, but I can't deal with tedious books anymore.
This book had a lot of promise and the premise was interesting.
The writing is beautiful.
However, about 100 pages into it, with no hope of plot or character development,
I've got nothing but pretty writing to keep me turning the pages. And that's not enough.
I feel like I'm hearing someone retell a naughty dream made up entirely of strangers:
'And then this guy... started sucking on this girl's breasts during dinner...
An old lad...more

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Jan 09, 2013 Literary Man rated it 5 of 5 stars

A pervy, Freudian masterpiece. Must read for anyone interested in form.

1 like · like · see review

Aug 26, 2012 Marta rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: contemporary-literature, my-bookshelf

Brytyjski pisarz, poeta i tłumacz, D.M. Thomas, nie należy do autorów, których twórczość byłaby w naszym kraju powszechnie znana. W Polsce ukazały się jedynie dwie jego powieści, w tym najsłynniejszy „Biały hotel”, zdobywca kilku nagród i nominowany do prestiżowego Bookera.

„Biały hotel” jest powieścią przedziwną, do tego stopnia, że trudno ją jednoznacznie ocenić, a nawet opisać. Zgodnie z notą okładkową ukazuje terapię, jaką pod okiem Zygmunta Freuda przechodzi Elisabeth Erdman, śpiewaczka oper...more Brytyjski pisarz, poeta i tłumacz, D.M. Thomas, nie należy do autorów, których twórczość byłaby w naszym kraju powszechnie znana. W Polsce ukazały się jedynie dwie jego powieści, w tym najsłynniejszy „Biały hotel”, zdobywca kilku nagród i nominowany do prestiżowego Bookera.

„Biały hotel” jest powieścią przedziwną, do tego stopnia, że trudno ją jednoznacznie ocenić, a nawet opisać. Zgodnie z notą okładkową ukazuje terapię, jaką pod okiem Zygmunta Freuda przechodzi Elisabeth Erdman, śpiewaczka operowa, borykająca się z traumami czasów dzieciństwa i młodości, skrywająca – zarówno przed swym terapeutą, jak i samą sobą – liczne tajemnice. Nękają ją uporczywe bóle, których medycyna nie jest w stanie racjonalnie wyjaśnić, a także wizje mające związek z jej przeszłością i przyszłością. Niech jednak nikogo to wprowadzenie nie zwiedzie – w utworze D.M. Thomasa psychoanaliza wcale nie odgrywa głównej roli.

Powieść składa się z kilku części różniących się od siebie zarówno formą, jak i poruszaną problematyką. Rozpoczyna ją wymiana kilku listów, które szybko urywają się i ustępują miejsca tekstom pisanym przez główną bohaterkę – zarówno poemat, jak i fragment prozatorski, traktują o jednej z wizji kobiety. Jej majaki określić można jedynie jako „skrajny przypadek lubieżnej fantazji” – jak stwierdza powieściowy Freud – pełne erotycznych scen, często rozgrywających się na tle wydarzeń okrutnych bądź nierealistycznych.

Kolejną część historii czytelnik poznaje z perspektywy Zygmunta Freuda. Jest to studium choroby Elisabeth, przeznaczone do zaprezentowania innym naukowcom. Następny rozdział ukazuje dalsze życie Frau Erdman, a tradycyjna narracja przeplatana jest fragmentami epistolarnymi. Na scenę wkracza więcej postaci drugoplanowych, choć ich udział w historii jest marginalny. Pełnią one rolę rekwizytów, mających obnażyć określone cechy, postawy czy wybory bohaterki – ale tylko ona została w pełni zarysowana przez autora.

Zaskakują ostatnie części książki – tak różne od wcześniejszych. Nie uchodzi zdradzać, o czym traktują, ale trzeba jednak uprzedzić, że nie mają bezpośredniego związku ani z psychoanalizą, ani z Freudem, ani z erotyką. W rozdziale przedostatnim jest to raczej krok w kierunku wizji przejmujących, wręcz bolesnych, ociekających ludzkim okrucieństwem. Thomasowi udał się ten fragment najlepiej ze wszystkich – tyle że znacznie odstaje on w swym nastroju od reszty książki. Samo zakończenie można zaś podsumować jedynie jako dziwaczne, będące krokiem w jeszcze inną stronę.

Istnieje rzecz jasna powiązanie fabularne między początkiem, środkiem a końcem „Białego hotelu”, który najkrócej można określić jako historię życia Elisabeth. Problemem jest jednak to, że trudno zrozumieć, co tak właściwie autor próbował swym utworem przekazać, czemu służyć miało przeskakiwanie między kolejnymi formami i rozdźwięk między wątkiem poruszanym przez pierwsze i ostatnie rozdziały. Do tego dodać należy pojawiające się tu i ówdzie elementy fantastyczne, jak dar jasnowidzenia, które komplikują odbiór jeszcze bardziej.

Patrząc na całość powieści, ma się przed oczami przedziwny kolaż – i trudno ocenić go jednoznacznie. Połączenie, jakie serwuje czytelnikom Thomas, jednych zachwyci, innych rozczaruje bądź wprawi w konsternację. W „Białym hotelu” widać ogromny potencjał, docenić trzeba także umiejętność tworzenia zarówno nastroju epatującego zmysłowością, jak i strachem czy bólem. Mnie jednak nie ujął, zapisał się w pamięci jako ciekawostka, która nie potrafiła podążyć w żadnym określonym kierunku i koniec końców – nie przekazała żadnej ważnej myśli.

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Zarówno tę recenzję, jak i wiele innych tekstów znajdziecie na moim blogu: http://oceansoul.waw.pl/ Serdecznie zapraszam!(less)

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Dec 08, 2011 Isabel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

She stumbled over a root, picked herself up and ran on blindly. There was nowhere to run, but she went on running. The crash of foliage grew louder behind her, for they were men and could run faster. Even if she reached the end of the wood, there would be more soldiers waiting to shoot her, but these few extra moments of life were precious. Only they were not enough. There was no escape except to become one of the trees. She would gladly give up her body, her rich life, to become a tree, frozen...more

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Aug 03, 2011 Megan rated it 3 of 5 stars

To be honest, the only reason I read this book is because I read an article about how Brittany Murphy, whom I liked as an actress, was supposed to star in a film version and it sounded interesting. Even the woman on the cover looks like her. The movie version has been in development hell for various reasons, but it wouldn’t translate well into a movie in the first place. The concept is intriguing—in pre-WWII Germany, a singer becomes a patient of Sigmund Freud’s. She dreams of a “white hotel” an...more

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About D.M. Thomas

D.M. Thomas was born in Cornwall in 1935. After reading English at New College, Oxford, he became a teacher and was Head of the English Department at Hereford College of Education until he became a full-time writer. His first novel The Flute-Player won the Gollancz Pan/Picador Fantasy Competition. He is also known for his collections of verse and his translation from the Russian poet Anna Akhmatov...more

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