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What Members Thought
Hotel du Lac reminded me of a more subdued, possibly inverse The Enchanted April, where a shoulder season hotel on Lake Geneva provides sanctuary and solace for a number of women escaping some aspect of their lives, to include romance author Edith Hope who is fleeing an initially unspecified scandal at home. It's a quiet, lonely book where the characters are like anemones, carefully extending curious social tendrils to make contact only to shut themselves fearfully away. Secrets are revealed beh
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Edith Hope is a woman of a “certain age,” who has been shipped off to the quiet, secluded Hotel du Lac to wait for some sort of scandal, in which she played a central role, to die down. She is morose, and rather lost – without any real purpose, except to wait for the hubbub to blow over. Despite her name, Edith really has no hope; she is bored and boring. She wants to be left alone, but she’s lonely. The other guests are similarly hiding or waiting for something to happen, and so the days pass.
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This book consists of the fictional reflections of a romance novelist who has been sent off by friends to a solitary exile at a classy but remote Swiss hotel. As a former guest of the real Hotel du Lac (brag brag) I will verify that her description of the place is spot-on. I loved it there. But to me it did not feel as remote as this book describes. Coppet is only 14 km from Geneva. You could almost make it there on your bike.
The author labors through her intense ennui by studying the female gue ...more
The author labors through her intense ennui by studying the female gue ...more
Atmospheric novel. Edith Hope, a writer of romance novels, withdraws to a lakeside Swiss hotel at the end of the season to try to sort out her life. I thoroughly enjoyed Brookner's descriptions of the few other guests. I do not think that, in real life, someone would be presented with such a stark choice. Although I have seen some "marriages of convenience", they usually evolved rather than started out that way. I also do not agree with Edith's choice. She is selling herself short.
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I read this book for one of my book clubs. I thought it was just ok. Our discussion about the book was very rich, though!
Lovely writing.
Jul 02, 2010
Deedee
marked it as to-read
Mar 01, 2011
Susan
marked it as to-read
Oct 28, 2011
Sarah
rated it
really liked it
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review of another edition
Shelves:
europe-central-east,
read-2015
Oct 22, 2013
Katt Hansen
marked it as to-read
Apr 13, 2017
Rachael
marked it as to-read
May 30, 2018
Idit
marked it as to-read
Sep 29, 2018
Valerie
marked it as to-read
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
booker-prize,
z-europe-switzerland
Aug 01, 2019
Karen
marked it as to-read
Jul 15, 2022
Ann
marked it as to-read
Apr 30, 2025
JoDee
marked it as to-read
