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Hotel World
by
Ali Smith
Woooooooo-hooooooo.
Five people: four are living; three are strangers; two are sisters; one, a teenage hotel chambermaid, has fallen to her death in a dumbwaiter. But her spirit lingers in the world, straining to recall things she never knew. And one night all five women find themselves in the smooth plush environs of the Global Hotel, where the intersection of their very d...more
Five people: four are living; three are strangers; two are sisters; one, a teenage hotel chambermaid, has fallen to her death in a dumbwaiter. But her spirit lingers in the world, straining to recall things she never knew. And one night all five women find themselves in the smooth plush environs of the Global Hotel, where the intersection of their very d...more
Paperback, 256 pages
Published
July 27th 2011
by Anchor
(first published January 29th 2001)
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Death by Dumbwaiter........."Woo-hooooooo"
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 this rather curious ghost tale. And then each, in turn, relates their personal story.
Hotel World is a story of the power of time, how quickly time can turn us from living to dead, sane to ...more
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 this rather curious ghost tale. And then each, in turn, relates their personal story.
Hotel World is a story of the power of time, how quickly time can turn us from living to dead, sane to ...more
The lives of five women intersect at a hotel in an unnamed English city. This is the kind of book for which the term 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 quite moving—the opening section is told from the point of view of a ghost, and I am sucker for stuff like that—but often I found all the stylistic fanfare frustrating. After a certain point, it makes me...more
The plus side is that its probably my favorite book that's even been on the Booker Prize short list.
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 character's chapter. I lasted three pages and skipped to the end. If I wanted to read something that was supposed to just alter my emotions, I'd read poetry. Just tell me the frickin story.
The...more
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 character's chapter. I lasted three pages and skipped to the end. If I wanted to read something that was supposed to just alter my emotions, I'd read poetry. Just tell me the frickin story.
The...more
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Another astonishing piece of work from Ms. Smith. Is there anything this writer can’t do? I have domestic duties and a rumbling stomach at present, so this review might be brief, and gushing. But here goes.
I love Ali Smith. I love Ali Smith because she moves me, and being a man, I’m not supposed to be moved by books. I’m supposed to be stirred by the raging masculinity of men in battle: the sound of gunfire in the crisp Vienna air as heads rain down upon the blood-soaked streets. But...more
I love Ali Smith. I love Ali Smith because she moves me, and being a man, I’m not supposed to be moved by books. I’m supposed to be stirred by the raging masculinity of men in battle: the sound of gunfire in the crisp Vienna air as heads rain down upon the blood-soaked streets. But...more
Another swooping, gurgling, lyrical outpouring from Ali Smith. It's interesting to compare it to Girl Meets Boy - another birdsong of a book, another example of switching between narrators, another example of women who speak through weaselly marketing words. But 'Hotel World' for me has a sense of an exercise - tell the stories of five overlapping characters so the reader sees what connects them, even if they do not - and it felt slightly laborious as a result.
The first chapter is an e...more
The first chapter is an e...more
I went a little back and forth if I liked this, so that is why the 3 stars. It is beautiful in parts for sure(the prose and language), but each chapter is written in a different style and I couldn't get in to the book as well because of it. All the styles are a form of stream of consciousness and some I really didn't like,but they did give you a closer feeling with the character. The premise is of a hotel that sort of has connected these 5 lives and you get their stories and how the people are...more
This stylish literary novel takes place in and around the Global Hotel one day in early winter and centers around five women, all of whom are spending time in the hotel under varying circumstances. One is the ghost of a young chambermaid who died there, one is a homeless woman whose regular begging spot is outside the hotel, one is a business traveler staying there, one is a receptionist on the night shift, and one is the sister of the dead chambermaid. The five of them intersect in interesting ...more
Like The Accidental, this is rather...experimental. There were some parts I liked less than others because of that, but I do love her prose and really enjoyed the story.[return][return]The section that I found difficult to read was the sister's. I get what she was trying to do and it did work really well in getting her (Claire? was that her name?) state of mind across, but it was hard to read for such a long period. I kept losing my place because there was nothing, no periods or anything to grou...more
This novel centers around a group of women whose lives are connected by a particular hotel in England. Each chapter focuses on a different character including a dead girl, her sister, a homeless woman, an invalid, a hotel worker, and more. The book has an experimental quality which I found annoying, especially the 36 page chapter which was written like one continuous stream of consciousness sentence without a single punctuation mark. Getting through that chapter was like pulling teeth. There...more
Living in Thailand, I sometimes read books because
a) I can get my hands on them
and
b) They are in English
Such was my justification for embarking upon this book. It was not what I expected after unwisely judging it by its proverbial cover. I expected something lighter, perhaps comical, but this book delves into the shadow areas of loss, depression, suicide and homelessness. The author treads bravely into this territory, and I did find certain parts of t...more
a) I can get my hands on them
and
b) They are in English
Such was my justification for embarking upon this book. It was not what I expected after unwisely judging it by its proverbial cover. I expected something lighter, perhaps comical, but this book delves into the shadow areas of loss, depression, suicide and homelessness. The author treads bravely into this territory, and I did find certain parts of t...more
This book is distilled insanity. It's told from the more or less stream-of-consciousness points of view of five women whose lives intersect in a certain hotel: a dead teenager trying to remember her past, her sister working through her grief, a self-absorbed journalist, a bed-ridden invalid, and a barely coherent homeless woman. I wish I could explain the plot, but there really isn't one - just snapshots of life that happen to overlap a bit. That said, it was kind of a fun read in places. The gh...more
This is the third piece from Ali Smith I've read, and I've liked each piece slightly less than the one before. 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 character study. Each section -- there are six -- is told via the stream-of-consciousness of one of the five female protagonists. As I've said in other reviews, stream-of-consciousness is best left for ch...more
There isn't a story here. At least not really. This is much more akin to a character study. Each section -- there are six -- is told via the stream-of-consciousness of one of the five female protagonists. As I've said in other reviews, stream-of-consciousness is best left for ch...more
Ali Smith's experimental writing is brilliant - I can see why it might turn some away, but if you're willing to appreciate her love of language (and share such a love yourself) then you are going to love her as an artist even more. Beyond her craft, I felt the story itself hit me in all the right places; personally, the tragic love story of the deceased teenager was almost identical to an experience of my own, and seeing an author addressing such a situation with the kind of honesty that Smith u...more
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This book is made up of six interconnected tales about women. I wish the second through the fourth had been cut.
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 comes the sister's piece, and it is touching. The last story is wonderful in so many ways. I loved the snippets of people's lives in the end piece.
Had we given those three in-between stories ...more
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 comes the sister's piece, and it is touching. The last story is wonderful in so many ways. I loved the snippets of people's lives in the end piece.
Had we given those three in-between stories ...more
Ali Smith definitely knows how to make her wounds blossom.
Describing the main character of “Hotel World” I would say that it is like Sally in the “Nightmare before Christmas”. However, in this particular case there is no Christmas; no Halloween; and no Jack.
Ali Smith’ prose is strong, witty and, first and foremost, deeply allegoric.Reading between the lines you can clearly hear some middle-class parents saying to their young daughter ‘you are dead to us’. But why? Well, ...more
Describing the main character of “Hotel World” I would say that it is like Sally in the “Nightmare before Christmas”. However, in this particular case there is no Christmas; no Halloween; and no Jack.
Ali Smith’ prose is strong, witty and, first and foremost, deeply allegoric.Reading between the lines you can clearly hear some middle-class parents saying to their young daughter ‘you are dead to us’. But why? Well, ...more
I think Hotel World would do best as a one-sitting book. At just shy of 240 pages, it's certainly short enough, but it's also one that demands a lot of attention. I gave it a few solid hours back in May, then set it aside and just never got around to picking it up again until today. I definitely enjoyed it - I'd call it a 7/10 book - but if it hadn't been for the long gap, it might have been an 8/10.
It's broken into five sections, each focusing on a different woman whose life in some w...more
It's broken into five sections, each focusing on a different woman whose life in some w...more
I just loved the opening passage - describing (from her point of view) the fall of a young girl down an old hotel dumb-water shaft to her death:
"Woooooooo-hooooooo what a fall what a soar what a plummet what a dash into dark into light what a plunge what a glide thud crash what a drop what a rush what a swoop what a fright what a mad hushed skirl what a smash mush mash-up broke and gashed what a heart in my mouth what an end"
Definitely not an easy read for some, but...more
"Woooooooo-hooooooo what a fall what a soar what a plummet what a dash into dark into light what a plunge what a glide thud crash what a drop what a rush what a swoop what a fright what a mad hushed skirl what a smash mush mash-up broke and gashed what a heart in my mouth what an end"
Definitely not an easy read for some, but...more
If this were a painting, it'd be an Impressionist--there's fleeting viewpoints of 5 women/girls in stream of consciousness. It's a short book, but since it deals with feelings more than plot, it says all it needs. (copied review) Five disparate voices inhabit Ali Smith's dreamlike, mesmerising 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 recentl...more
Well now, what to say, what to say...
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,
but,
there is a term I sometimes use, brain candy, to describe books you can finish in about two hours, your typical Nora Roberts, for example. Interchangeable plots, characters, etc. but easy an...more
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,
but,
there is a term I sometimes use, brain candy, to describe books you can finish in about two hours, your typical Nora Roberts, for example. Interchangeable plots, characters, etc. but easy an...more
Five people who happen to be in the Global Hotel one night, including the ghost of a hotel maid who's plunged to her death in "the, the. The lift for dishes, very small room waiting suspended above a shaft of nothing, I forget the word, it has its own name." It's playful with language, funny, tragic, all about love and life and death, and so compassionate toward ordinary, everyday people without ever becoming sentimental.
"Remember you must live.
Remember you most ...more
"Remember you must live.
Remember you most ...more
What a start! Ali Smith’s Hotel World explodes with the buzz of language and never relents. Told as stream-of-consciousness vignettes focussing on a girl who died falling down a hotel dumbwaiter, “Hotel World” owes much to the Modernist masterpieces of Joyce and Woolf, but doesn’t feel at all dated in this post-modern world.
So much of this novel is about language–about finding the words for things, losing the words for things, failing to communicate with words. But it isn’t at all a “t...more
So much of this novel is about language–about finding the words for things, losing the words for things, failing to communicate with words. But it isn’t at all a “t...more
Ali Smith gets a lot of love from the reviewers (the real ones, not us hobbledehoys lurking under our Goodreads rock). She likes to be experimental. Or she does in this novel, anyway. Unfortunately "experimental" techniques provoke the train-spotter in me. Oh, I say to myself, there's some James Joyce. And here's Virginia Woolf. A soupcon of B S Johnson, and - yes ma'am - a nod to Donald Barthelme. Ali Smith drags in some heavy comparisons, thereby, and doesn't do herself any favours. ...more
While I browsed the stacks of a newly accessible library, Hotel World peeked out at me from a shelf of PRs (British Literature, for those not in the LC call number know), looking pertly pink and new in its clear coated wrappings. A skim of the back cover revealed five female characters intersecting at one point, and the fact that Ali Smith's latest work was a finalist for the Booker Prize. Intriguing enough.
Now, from a backwards point of view, I feel fooled. The characters never deve...more
Now, from a backwards point of view, I feel fooled. The characters never deve...more
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 many people!
I particularly liked the way the book was brought to a close and because - I think - of the way in which this was done, made me want to go back to the beginning and read it all o...more
It's rare that I go back and read through parts of a book a second time -- this was one of the ones that I did. Ali Smith's writing is near poetry, and this book takes a non-traditional approach by telling a story through five different women, one of them a ghost. This unfolded beautifully, though the narrative style and stream of consciousness writing style does take a little getting used to... (and I'm still not 100% sure who the girl across the street from Else was). I thought this was l...more
I almost didn't finish this book. I tried, but the chapters were broken up like indivdual sotries, which you know they were. But some of them had flow issues,that you if put the book down it was very difficult to find where you were afterwards. One particular chapter was a stream of conscious that meant there was maybe 5 periods in the span of like 15 pages. Overwhelming. You had to get in the flow, and I hadn't set aside the time for it really. (i would have done 2.5 stars if they let me)
I read the first section of this in one gulp, on the metro. I was wholeheartedly smitten. That first section is amazing, but then I had to put it down for a bit because I was in the middle of other things, got distracted, etc. Because the next section is compeltely different it took me a while to get back into it. I wanted it to keep feeling like that first section, but of course it didn't do that at all.
Once I got over that little speed bump I zipped through the rest of the book. It'...more
Once I got over that little speed bump I zipped through the rest of the book. It'...more
I bought this at Book & Gown bookstore & cafe in Twyn, Wales, during a road trip Easter weekend with Nat and Jo.
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 some of whom interact.
Following the confused soul Sara was bewildering, reading about the invalid Lise made me feel quite lethargic and unwell, homeless Else is inscrutable, foolish Penn...more
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 some of whom interact.
Following the confused soul Sara was bewildering, reading about the invalid Lise made me feel quite lethargic and unwell, homeless Else is inscrutable, foolish Penn...more
This book is told through 5 different voices. I really thought I was going to love this book because I enjoyed the first section. The narrator was the "spirit" of a girl who died, and she was spending some time observing her family and "pestering" her body in the grave. Actually that part was quite humorous, but then the book fell apart in later sections. The last section, by the dead girl's sister is over 30 pages written in one sentence of manic internal narration.
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Ali Smith is a writer, born in 1962 in Inverness, Scotland, to working-class parents. She was raised in a council house in Inverness and now lives in Cambridge. She studied at Aberdeen, and then at Cambridge, for a Ph.D. that was never finished. In a 2004 interview with writing magazine Mslexia, she talked briefly about the difficulty of becoming ill with chronic fatigue syndrome for a year and ho...more
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“We all know our dates of birth but . . . every year there is another date that we pass over without knowing what it is but it is just as important it is the other date the death date.”
—
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“There is a kind of poetry, bad and good, in evrything, everywhere we look.”
—
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