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A review by bkbarons
I Hotel by Karen Tei Yamashita
2.0
First of all, I am not Asian or an Asian American. I wasn't even alive in the 60s or 70s and I have been in San Francisco for a total of 5 days in my whole life. So not exactly the 'target market' for this book. With that caveat, this was a HUGE struggle to finish. I would have put it down a long time ago if it werent for the fact that it was the book of the month for my book club. As it was, it took 3 separate attempts to get past page 24, including 3 times where I fell asleep after reading 5 pages.
I honestly have no idea what I read. There is no 'story' just images and feelings and ephemeral ideas. I dont think the format did anything for the book. It certainly gave it a different vibe than straight up prose, but I'd be hard pressed to say that it was something that made it better. I had to skip whole parts because they were completely indecipherable.
That said, I think that this book will probably appeal to a lot of the more cerebral readers out there, or people who were in any of the three categories i listed in my first two sentences.
Glad to be done. Very glad to be done.
I honestly have no idea what I read. There is no 'story' just images and feelings and ephemeral ideas. I dont think the format did anything for the book. It certainly gave it a different vibe than straight up prose, but I'd be hard pressed to say that it was something that made it better. I had to skip whole parts because they were completely indecipherable.
That said, I think that this book will probably appeal to a lot of the more cerebral readers out there, or people who were in any of the three categories i listed in my first two sentences.
Glad to be done. Very glad to be done.