Scan barcode
A review by cais
The White Hotel by D. M. Thomas
5.0
"There are things so far beyond belief that it ought to be possible to awake from them."
This is an astonishing book, a strange marvel, but difficult to quote from, difficult to describe without giving too much away. It is best to come to this book with only a vague idea of its contents. Sigmund Freud is one of the main characters as is one of his (fictional) patients, a disturbed woman whose fiercely erotic visions shape-shift throughout the story. Knowing some very basic Freudian concepts is useful here, but nothing more is needed to appreciate this book.
I can say that D.M. Thomas, in a very original way, has crafted a story that is ultimately about the Holocaust. This book is a reminder that when we hear statistics about that horror, or even see photographs and film footage, we need to remember that each number, each image, represents a person who even if illiterate and poor, even if they had never ventured outside the boundaries of their own neighborhood, was someone who had "dreamed dreams, seen visions and had amazing experiences." Though the main character in this book is complex and troubled, hence her seeking out psychoanalysis, her dreams and feelings are, in the end, no more important or interesting than someone who has led an apparently lesser life. This book is about the value of every human life and it is wonderfully written and incredibly devastating.
(Related & recommended reading: Dina Pronicheva's testimony about Babi Yar is available online. Also, the case history of Freud's "Wolf Man.")
"She passed into a trance, in which everything that was being enacted before her happened slowly and without sound. Perhaps she had literally become deaf. It was quieter than the quietest night. And the clouds drifted across the sky with the same terrible, icy, inhuman slowness. Also there were changes of color. The scene became tinted with mauve. She watched cumulus gather on the horizon; saw it break into three, and with continuous changes of shape and color the clouds started their journey across the sky. They were not aware of what was happening. They thought it was an ordinary day. They would have been astonished. The tiny spider running up the blade of grass thought it was a simple, ordinary blade of grass in a field."
This is an astonishing book, a strange marvel, but difficult to quote from, difficult to describe without giving too much away. It is best to come to this book with only a vague idea of its contents. Sigmund Freud is one of the main characters as is one of his (fictional) patients, a disturbed woman whose fiercely erotic visions shape-shift throughout the story. Knowing some very basic Freudian concepts is useful here, but nothing more is needed to appreciate this book.
I can say that D.M. Thomas, in a very original way, has crafted a story that is ultimately about the Holocaust. This book is a reminder that when we hear statistics about that horror, or even see photographs and film footage, we need to remember that each number, each image, represents a person who even if illiterate and poor, even if they had never ventured outside the boundaries of their own neighborhood, was someone who had "dreamed dreams, seen visions and had amazing experiences." Though the main character in this book is complex and troubled, hence her seeking out psychoanalysis, her dreams and feelings are, in the end, no more important or interesting than someone who has led an apparently lesser life. This book is about the value of every human life and it is wonderfully written and incredibly devastating.
(Related & recommended reading: Dina Pronicheva's testimony about Babi Yar is available online. Also, the case history of Freud's "Wolf Man.")
"She passed into a trance, in which everything that was being enacted before her happened slowly and without sound. Perhaps she had literally become deaf. It was quieter than the quietest night. And the clouds drifted across the sky with the same terrible, icy, inhuman slowness. Also there were changes of color. The scene became tinted with mauve. She watched cumulus gather on the horizon; saw it break into three, and with continuous changes of shape and color the clouds started their journey across the sky. They were not aware of what was happening. They thought it was an ordinary day. They would have been astonished. The tiny spider running up the blade of grass thought it was a simple, ordinary blade of grass in a field."