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A review by tenmillionhardbacks
Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner
5.0
It was quite a surprise, on finishing Hotel du Lac, to learn that it was probably set around the time it was written – in the 1980s. It has the feel of a much older time – just after the Second World War perhaps – and not a contemporary one. It was difficult not to identify with Edith, packed off on a ‘holiday’ by her friends after causing a disturbance and encountering a number of other women taking the air as the season draws to a close in the old-fashioned hotel by the lake.
I suspect opinions of Edith – a writer of romances under a pen-name – may differ depending on where on the introvert-extrovert spectrum you sit. To my mind, she seemed to have organised her life perfectly, with plenty of sitting in the garden and an aspirational amount of tea-drinking, until the well-meaning friends intrude to direct her future. Following an ‘indiscretion,’ they decide for her that she needs time away and instead of telling them where to go, she obligingly gets on the plane.
Her fellow guests at first amuse and delight her, as with a writer’s eye she creates backgrounds and motivations for them. But like the friends back home, they don’t seem to be able to resist the temptation to manage Edith’s life.
Read my full review - and many more! - at my site ten million hardbacks
An autumn sun, soft as honey, gilded the lake; tiny waves whispered onto the shore; a white steamer passed noiselessly off in the direction of Ouchy; and at her feet, on the sandy path, she saw the green hedgehog shape of a chestnut, split open to reveal the brown gleam of its fruit. The café with the clouded windows, now transparent and bathed in an afternoon light, was almost empty. Seated at a silent table, Edith closed her eyes momentarily in a shaft of sunlight and tasted pure pleasure.
I suspect opinions of Edith – a writer of romances under a pen-name – may differ depending on where on the introvert-extrovert spectrum you sit. To my mind, she seemed to have organised her life perfectly, with plenty of sitting in the garden and an aspirational amount of tea-drinking, until the well-meaning friends intrude to direct her future. Following an ‘indiscretion,’ they decide for her that she needs time away and instead of telling them where to go, she obligingly gets on the plane.
Her fellow guests at first amuse and delight her, as with a writer’s eye she creates backgrounds and motivations for them. But like the friends back home, they don’t seem to be able to resist the temptation to manage Edith’s life.
Read my full review - and many more! - at my site ten million hardbacks