Hotel Du Lac by Anita Brookner
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Book Reviews of Hotel Du Lac
Book Review: BEAUTY AND LONELINESS
Summary: 5 Stars
Anita Brookner is one of my favorite authors. This book epitomizes the reasons why. Hotel du Lac is a quiet book, but in its own quiet way, haunting and unforgettable. A woman comes to spend time alone at a lakeside hotel. From this still point, the plot expands like ripples in a pool. The writing is always exquisite and clear.Book Review: The Voyage Out - revisited
Summary: 5 Stars
I really enjoyed reading this great novel. The image of Lake Geneva in the fall is so vivid. This book reminded me so much of Virginia Wolf's "The Voyage Out" both in its language, hotel life and general sense of melancholy.
The review of Marzipan on Amazon sums this book best in my view
Book Review: beautifully written
Summary: 5 Stars
Had to agree with the reviewer who loved the blue flower. Felt both to be wonderful reading experiences. Must say that this book captured the experience of Switzerland in the autumn.Book Review: Reasons for being single
Summary: 5 Stars
Very subtle and understanding analysis of how a woman who likes her own company could choose singleness...Deep and entertaining reading!Book Review: Quiet & Thoughtful Read
Summary: 4 Stars
Hotel du Lac, by Anita Brookner surprised me. The first forty or so pages, while beautifully written, were a tad tough to meander through at times. But then, oh then, all of a sudden, and at some point I can't recall, I was quite happy -- it pulled me in and although it's a quiet and contemplative story, it was really quite interesting and I felt at home with it.
Edith Hope is a romance writer who writes under another name -- she's accomplished, but to be honest, she writes about feelings and events that she's never sure she'll ever have, or at least have forever. She's withdrawn, and doesn't fit with her "friends."
Edith is sent away from "civilized" society in London to a quaint and quiet hotel in Switzerland following a scandal that it has been deemed should not occur amongst polite and learned men and women. While there, she encounters a sad variety of characters that initially seem almost so uninteresting, that they are interesting. Eventually, you are drawn into each one, into their nuances, their sad or internally destructive personalities. While one character, Mrs. Pusey initially impresses upon Edith that she is kind and lovely, it soon becomes evident that she's really just lacking in the same things that most of the hotel guests are without as well -- after all, why are they all sequestered in this hotel, away from family and friends, during a quiet time of season? It seemed to be that they all were suffering in some way.
Do not expect a flurry of events in the winner of the Man Booker Prize of 1984. Expect instead a quiet discussion, a studied review of a writer's perspective of those she meets and interacts with, amidst the background of an incredible hotel. There is not a hurry from one thing to another. It is a slow exercise of evaluation and word usage to describe each scene, moment, person. Could it be considered tedious and boring to some? Perhaps. Could it also be viewed as deceptively pleasing, slowly building the undercurrent of anticipation for something, something brilliant and cunning to breach the water line and unfold its secret? Yes.
At times, it was a bit humorous, but I found it to be an overall sad book, about people who were sad and who either were forced to be in exile by others, or simply had nowhere else that they could go. It's an insightful and thoughtful novel on love, loss, and regret. Although I wouldn't recommend it for everyone, I would say that if you like a quiet novel that delivers an introspective view on one's own life, then this sad little beauty is a book for you.