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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Second time that I have read this book. First time was in 2018. I always claim it is my favourite Booker Prize winner and I had to check that it still is. I just like Edith clear thinking once she has seen the contents of the hotel.
I'm giving this 4 stars for the quality of the writing, which is absolutely controlled and precise. At the beginning of the book this seemed like it would mean the book was revelatory - I expected the author to be able to write something completely revealing of human nature. But the subject matter is....frustrating. The protagonist is an author who loves a married man, believes in the rather rubbishy mass fiction she writes and who has been exiled by her critical friends after she fails to marry a worthy man. Abroad she meets a variety of people and is proposed to by another man who suggests their marriage of convenience. This she agrees to before discovering that she cannot put up with him sleeping with other women. But the book was was written and presumably set in the late 20th Century not the beginning, and it feels old fashioned and stifled. The descriptions of people are minutely observed and funny, but the heroine is hugely passive and frustrating and the book ultimately adds up to very little. I'm going to read one more Brookner to see if I like it more but she's not on my list of favourite authors with this book.
Greatly enjoyed the prose, although the ending wasn’t as profound as I had hoped for. Close to 4 stars otherwise
This the second of her books I have read. The best way to describe her writing is to say that it is like reading an existentialist Edith Wharton/Henry James. In the two books I read her protagonists are shy, lonely intelligent women who had unhappy families who are very keen observers. They get involved either in friendships or romantic relationships based on their desire to feel close to strong characters who manipulate them. When the protagonist finally realizes she has been manipulated at the end, she cuts herself loose from them and this is her sad triumph. What I like about her books are the characterization, description and psychological analysis.
Ooof. This was written in the 1980s but the various ways in which women and their lifestyles, behaviors and looks are scrutinized makes it feel like it's from the 1950s. Depressed and lonely woman, suffering from an affair with an emotionally unattainable man, is shoved away to a old fashioned and rather dull hotel by her "friends" after she caused a minor scandal when she didn't behave as a woman in the 1980s (50s?) apparently should have done. What kind of storyline is this?! Anyway, then she meets a deeply condescending and misogynistic man who unsolicitedly mansplains god and the world to her. Don't want to spoil the ending but the book is definitely not as "romantic" or great as the cover makes it sound. No idea why this won the Booker Prize.
funny
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
For some reason, this book reminded me of the movie "The Grand Budapest Hotel". Maybe it was the fact that it was the end of the "season" and most guests had left with only the "regular" quirky ones left behind. I didn't have much sympathy for Edith-she seemed so wishy-washy and comfortable letting others make her decisions. The ending was a bit of a surprise, leaving some question as to a sequel option.
""Why love?" It tells the story of Edith Hope, who writes romance novels under a pseudonym. When her life begins to resemble the plots of her own novels, however, Edith flees to Switzerland, where the quiet luxury of the Hotel du Lac promises to resore her to her senses. But instead of peace and rest, Edith finds herself sequestered at the hotel with an assortment of love's casualties and exiles. She also attracts the attention of a worldly man determined to release her unused capacity for mischief and pleasure."
""Why love?" It tells the story of Edith Hope, who writes romance novels under a pseudonym. When her life begins to resemble the plots of her own novels, however, Edith flees to Switzerland, where the quiet luxury of the Hotel du Lac promises to resore her to her senses. But instead of peace and rest, Edith finds herself sequestered at the hotel with an assortment of love's casualties and exiles. She also attracts the attention of a worldly man determined to release her unused capacity for mischief and pleasure."
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No