<![CDATA[Hotel World]]>

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Five disparate voices inhabit Ali Smith's dreamlike, mesmerizing Hotel World, set in the luxurious anonymity of the Global Hotel, in an unnamed northern English city. The disembodied yet interconnected characters include Sara, a 19-year-old chambermaid who has recently died at the hotel; her bereaved sister, Clare, who visits the scene of Sara's death; Penny, an advertising copywriter who is staying in the room opposite; Lise, the Global's depressed receptionist; and the homeless Else, who begs on the street outside. Smith's ambitious prose explores all facets of language and its uses. Sara takes us through the moment of her exit from the world and beyond; in her desperate, fading grip on words and senses she gropes to impart the meaning of her death in what she terms "the lift for dishes," then comes a flash of clarity: "That's the name for it, the name for it; that's it; dumb waiter dumb waiter dumb waiter." Hotel World is not an easy read: disturbing and witty by turns, with stream-of-consciousness narrators reminiscent of Virginia Woolf's The Waves, its deceptively rambling language is underpinned by a formal construction. Exploring the "big themes" of love, death, and millennial capitalism, it takes as its starting point Muriel Spark's Memento Mori ("Remember you must die") and counteracts this axiom with a resolute "Remember you must live." Ali Smith's novel is a daring, compelling, and frankly spooky read. --Catherine Taylor, Amazon.co.uk

118455

2001

Hotel World

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Sara Wilby's tragic death, spiralling down in a dumbwaiter, begins with the voice of Sara's 'gossamer ghost'.
We see her desperate to understand what just happened.
Her death affects other women bound up in t...more...]]> 2 1 false false Sat Sep 13 22:16:37 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 15 22:07:10 -0700 2008 literary fiction was invented: Smith is totally getting her Virginia Woolf on, with steam-of-consciousness being just the tip of the iceberg. There were parts that I found really qui...more...]]> 1 1 false false Fri Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sat Jan 26 11:09:26 -0800 2008 Sat Feb 23 23:23:11 -0800 2008
The bad side is that's not saying much.

Let me just start with 31 pages of unpunctuated stream of conscience writing. I was actually going along all right until I hit that char...more...]]> 5 1 false false Thu May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2003 Fri Jan 04 04:02:39 -0800 2008 Wed Jun 10 09:37:35 -0700 2009

2003:

Rating :
6/5 ... ah ok ok 5/5 !
Comment :
This book ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Aug 04 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 04 11:15:58 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 11 05:02:12 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Aug 25 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 19:43:10 -0700 2009 Tue Aug 25 11:03:33 -0700 2009 1 Hotel World starts out with a bang (or a crash, as the case may be), but it never follows through.

There isn't a story here. At least not really. This is much more akin to a char...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 04 17:32:19 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 05 16:21:54 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 17 13:42:45 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 20 04:05:37 -0800 2009
I loved the opening story told by the first girl's ghost. It felt like a good retelling of Our Town by Tom Robbins. The next three women don't add anything great. Then come...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Sep 10 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 03 16:48:11 -0700 2009 Sun Sep 13 14:12:08 -0700 2009
I liked this book. Ali Smith likes to toy with language and I enjoyed that. This is certainly not the best story ever told, but it is interesting and it suited me just fine.
It's not a speed read, and its not a stunning work of brilliance,
...more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Oct 20 00:00:00 -0700 2004 Sun Mar 01 16:20:48 -0800 2009 Sun Mar 01 16:20:48 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Wed Feb 15 00:00:00 -0800 2006 Tue Apr 15 05:47:49 -0700 2008 Tue Apr 15 05:48:09 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 0 false false Thu Sep 27 04:40:59 -0700 2007 Thu Sep 27 04:41:31 -0700 2007 more...]]> 2 0 false false Fri Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Mon Aug 13 13:03:06 -0700 2007 Tue Aug 14 18:27:57 -0700 2007 more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Jul 06 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Feb 22 00:53:48 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 22 00:53:48 -0800 2009 Each of the 5 characters (a chapter is given to each) is linked by one central event. Each speak to the reader in a distinctive style - the voice of the teenager Clare comes across particularly well. There are so many threads linking the event (or the person at the centre of this event) to so ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Apr 08 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 10 09:47:56 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 10 09:49:52 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Apr 21 15:01:14 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 12 11:55:30 -0700 2009 Tue Apr 21 15:01:14 -0700 2009
It's the first book I've finished in a long time so I feel good about that. Quite a quick read, it follows five female characters, most of whom are not known to each other but...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sun Apr 12 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 12 10:17:26 -0700 2009 Wed Apr 15 01:19:48 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Sun Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Mon Sep 08 01:51:48 -0700 2008 Sun Feb 01 21:39:31 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 17 10:50:18 -0800 2008 Sun Jan 27 07:42:04 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Jul 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 26 18:57:30 -0700 2009 Wed Jul 15 08:52:16 -0700 2009
The plot itself is less a plot and more a situation - A girl worki...more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=567770