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melliedm's review
challenging
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Davi was wrong. The circle was not closed.
The circle was not closed because she was going to break it.
In sitting with the final passage of The Third Hotel I am left distinctly disappointed.
Clare is a grieving widow on a trip to Cuba to attend the film festival her late husband, who died in an unexpected accident, was supposed to attend for his work writing about horror. When she sees her husband alive and well, she falls down a rabbit hole of surveillance and desperation.
I think I understand what The Third Hotel and Van Den Berg is working to get across, I do. But understanding that, and appreciating the experience of reading this book are not the same thing—and most of the time? I didn’t appreciate the experience.
The reader is frequently left unmoored: dialogue is not differentiated from the exposition or description; a scene will be presented, abandoned for something else, and returned to paragraphs later with a single question; line to line you will jump between periods of time; characters and ideas and experiences seem liquid.
Sure, yes: Clare is also unmoored. Are these decisions made with the intent we will become lost with her? Does it matter? When I would find myself scanning back for where I had lost the thread, only to find I’d lost nothing and things had simply changed mid-scene I couldn’t help but think “no, it doesn’t.”
The book has things to say about voyeurism and objectivity, posing the idea where—with film, in this specific case—objectivity is impossible because the lens itself is directed. This objective/subjective idea is important as Clare comes across as a decidedly untrustworthy perspective—the novel is an ocean of ambiguities. And therein lies the crux of my problem. While the reader can muse upon what Van den Berg chooses to direct her prose (the lens), we somehow manage to lack both objectivity AND subjectivity throughout the narrative.
What kernel are we to latch onto in order to anchor us into some understanding of what the author wants to communicate?
A character who is making a documentary about light fixtures and suicide has our protagonist pose that she doesn’t see the connection, she wants an explanation. He brushes it off: if I could describe it in a few minutes of words, I wouldn’t need to make a documentary, would I? The book feels the same. Things are disconnected, but the author doesn’t have a few words over drinks and a cigarette, she has 200 pages.
Is this an attempt to show us an objective lens on a subjective perspective and lure us with the siren song of meaning only to leave all details (even the veracity of a ceramic cat that appears in three lines) up to us?
If that’s the goal, the author succeeds. However, I think that success comes at the cost of any emotional resonance. And for a book about loss, grief, and letting go, that cost is too steep. I wanted to care, I wanted to have some feeling—one feeling!—before the conclusion. Alas, I don’t think this eel is going to stay under my skin.
I appreciate what Van Den Berg was aiming for with this novel, but it simply wasn’t for me.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Mental illness, Suicidal thoughts, Dementia, Blood, Sexism, Death, Toxic relationship, and Stalking
Moderate: Body shaming, Car accident, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Animal cruelty, Grief, Death of parent, and Sexual content
savvylit's review
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Conceptually, this book is brilliant. The Third Hotel is chock full of things that usually interest me: magical realism, social and cultural commentary, beautiful writing style. However, despite the intriguing storyline (did her husband actually die?) the novel meanders like one of the narrator's long strolls through downtown Havana. I finished the book just thinking "huh, that's it?"
Content Warnings
Graphic: Toxic relationship, Grief, Car accident, Death, and Stalking
dinokadich's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
5.0
I really enjoyed this unexpectedly haunting book, which is both a meditation on grief and the dark places it sends us, and also a funny, lighthearted, and adventurous ride. I read it on the beach in one day!
Content Warnings
Moderate: Dementia, Death of parent, and Death
ruthie_'s review
dark
mysterious
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? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Death, Suicide, Grief, and Dementia
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