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gkalashnikova's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
inspiring
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
kikiandarrowsfishshelf's review against another edition
3.0
Disclaimer: ARC read via Netgalley courtesy of Open Road Integrated Media.
I am old enough (or young enough depending on your viewpoint) to vaguely remember seeing commercials for the television series based on this novel. So I admit reading this was somewhat more of an interest of why did people love/like enough for it to be a television series.
I’m not sure what the answer to my question is, but I must admit this was better than I thought it would be.
Hotel takes place in the 60s, just at the start of the Civil Rights Movement. It is about a hotel (duh) in New Orleans that is going through a crisis. The story shifts between hotel owner, staff, guests, and a would be buyer. The strength in the book isn’t the plot, which to be frank, is rather predictable from the first chapter to the end, but the characters. The book functions more as a believable character study more than anything else. I have to give him props for the character of Dodo is not really a dumb blonde at all, though her story arc was cliché.
The book also is very much a product of its time in terms of the woman characters who are in the standard jobs (if they have a job at all). But this is made up for the relationship between the hotel’s manager Peter, and Royce, an African American law student whose relationship with the owner/ president of the hotel, Trent, seems to be a holdover not only from Royce’s father but slave days. This is made more problematic because Trent refuses to desegregate the hotel. And it is this plot point that makes the most interesting read, at least from today’s standpoint.
If this were a true Hollywood movie, at by today’s production teams, it would end with Trent realizing the errors of his ways, Peter and Royce becoming BBFs, and the hotel allowing lower income inner city former gang members to work there.
The book isn’t today’s Hollywood.
While the desegregation issues are handled with typical Hollywood dramatic flair, its outcome is more realistic and nuanced. This makes up for the predictable plot elements like the sick guest, the stealing, the hanky panky and spanky, and the murder plot.
Additionally, Hailey’s restrained prose makes the book read more like an HBO series than a daytime soap opera. While it is not a book, I don’t think I would buy (it really isn’t my thing), it was enjoyable, and far more so than the Dan Simmons book I was reading at the same time. In fact, I kept putting that book down to read this. If you like soap operas, this is enough romance and angst here to keep you happy as well.
Crossposted at Booklikes.
I am old enough (or young enough depending on your viewpoint) to vaguely remember seeing commercials for the television series based on this novel. So I admit reading this was somewhat more of an interest of why did people love/like enough for it to be a television series.
I’m not sure what the answer to my question is, but I must admit this was better than I thought it would be.
Hotel takes place in the 60s, just at the start of the Civil Rights Movement. It is about a hotel (duh) in New Orleans that is going through a crisis. The story shifts between hotel owner, staff, guests, and a would be buyer. The strength in the book isn’t the plot, which to be frank, is rather predictable from the first chapter to the end, but the characters. The book functions more as a believable character study more than anything else. I have to give him props for the character of Dodo is not really a dumb blonde at all, though her story arc was cliché.
The book also is very much a product of its time in terms of the woman characters who are in the standard jobs (if they have a job at all). But this is made up for the relationship between the hotel’s manager Peter, and Royce, an African American law student whose relationship with the owner/ president of the hotel, Trent, seems to be a holdover not only from Royce’s father but slave days. This is made more problematic because Trent refuses to desegregate the hotel. And it is this plot point that makes the most interesting read, at least from today’s standpoint.
If this were a true Hollywood movie, at by today’s production teams, it would end with Trent realizing the errors of his ways, Peter and Royce becoming BBFs, and the hotel allowing lower income inner city former gang members to work there.
The book isn’t today’s Hollywood.
While the desegregation issues are handled with typical Hollywood dramatic flair, its outcome is more realistic and nuanced. This makes up for the predictable plot elements like the sick guest, the stealing, the hanky panky and spanky, and the murder plot.
Additionally, Hailey’s restrained prose makes the book read more like an HBO series than a daytime soap opera. While it is not a book, I don’t think I would buy (it really isn’t my thing), it was enjoyable, and far more so than the Dan Simmons book I was reading at the same time. In fact, I kept putting that book down to read this. If you like soap operas, this is enough romance and angst here to keep you happy as well.
Crossposted at Booklikes.
ghostgirl411's review against another edition
2.0
A 25-year-old woman is called a "girl" (and not in the hipster, ironic way we gals call each other that) on the first page, and it's all downhill from there.
Not that I blame him. It's sort of the equivalent of "N@gger Jim." But it's sort of disturbing to be thrown back to a time where it's considered up to a 19-year-old's FATHER to decide whether or not to report an attempted gang rape.
Also, the big climatic disaster at the end has a sort of wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am quality.
Not that I blame him. It's sort of the equivalent of "N@gger Jim." But it's sort of disturbing to be thrown back to a time where it's considered up to a 19-year-old's FATHER to decide whether or not to report an attempted gang rape.
Also, the big climatic disaster at the end has a sort of wham-bam-thank-you-ma'am quality.
niru3991's review against another edition
5.0
Hotel is quite possibly Hailey's best work. The plot is simple, but many seemingly boring but ultimately interesting subplots, and lively characters who leap off the pages. The book keeps with the times it was published in, with a lot of social commentary, and offers much more than a nuanced portrait of the inner workings of a hotel. The wonderful thing is how well all of these fall into place, quite literally, at the end of the book.
teachertroitsky's review against another edition
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
History, relationships, humanity
liakeller's review against another edition
4.0
I really enjoy Hailey's writing style. Just a week in a Southern Hotel - a hotel thief, a duke and duchess, an attempted rape, a dental conference and a actress named Dodo.
skeiser's review against another edition
3.0
The beats are familiar but the gasps of bewilderment remain.
susieliston's review against another edition
2.0
Well I would have actually rated this higher because I did enjoy it for the most part. It's very dated, of course with the prerequisite racist/sexist crap that goes along with it, but I always allow for the time-- only fair. And it's written-by-a-man soap opera of the 1960s, which is sort of a genre onto itself. But all that aside, I still had to SCREAM (well I can't literally scream, I have a nasty cold) at the ending. I mean really. It was so ludicrous, I can't believe that not one other review that I read comments on it at all. Just one question...WERE THERE NO WRONGFUL DEATHS SUITS IN 1965? That hotel would be TOAST.