SOLVED. Fantasy/Fiction - About a man who grows up in and (eventually runs) a strange hotel. [s]

[Stanley]

Fantasy/Fiction - About a man who grows up in and (eventually runs) a strange hotel/skyscraper that is under continual construction

From what I can remember, takes place in the early 1900s or late 1800s, Unites States (dense metropolitan area like New York or Chicago). Starts off about a boy who lives/works in a hotel, and as the story progresses he learns more about the going-ons of the business. The hotel also continues to be built higher and higher, and eventually each floor becomes a strange world in and of itself. He one day takes over as the owner of the hotel, and in slowly becomes more of an eccentric, just like the hotel itself. I want to say that the title included the name of the hotel, or of the family who owned it.

I read it in 2002ish. I recall the cover of the paperback edition at the time had a beige cover with a drawing of a ground floor of a skyscraper in that era. Read it for an college literature course. Not terribly long, couldn't have been more than 300 pages.

[Kris]

Martin Dressler: The Tale of an American Dreamer by Steven Millhauser?

Google search - site:www.goodreads.com "fantasy" boy grows up "hotel" construction

[Stanley]

Yes, thanks!

[Kris]

Great! Glad you found your book, Stanley.