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Girish Gowda's Reviews > Hotel du Lac
Hotel du Lac
by
by
3.5 rounded down to 3.
There's a formidable gentleness associated with how Brookner unravels her main character, Edith, a writer, who is on a holiday, after having not really been herself. But the problem is, vacations don't really transmogrify people. No matter where we go, we take ourselves with us. People change people. For better of worse. No amount of beach walking, mountain climbing, day drinking, mindless shopping fills the void. You get a better picture sure, you have heightened respect for the otherness of existence surely, but people come along and unjustifiably hold the power to change us, for all of our existence.
No doubt Brookner's writing is stunning and illuminating, but there's a flatness that seeps into the narrative pretty early on that remains as such till the end. It's a question of tone and repetition. Brookner writes ethereally, remarkably about these people in long paragraphs but I wish these unravelled before me through their actions, their thoughts, their exchanges. Of course you understand people by observation, but people reveal themselves through their actions too and their way of thinking. Significant relationships get established and broken in the book without the reader having been given anything to hold on to, which was a bit disappointing. It's like the action took place elsewhere and not on the page and the reader only had the second hand account of what transpired.
But what a find nonetheless, Brookner, as a writer has been...
There's a formidable gentleness associated with how Brookner unravels her main character, Edith, a writer, who is on a holiday, after having not really been herself. But the problem is, vacations don't really transmogrify people. No matter where we go, we take ourselves with us. People change people. For better of worse. No amount of beach walking, mountain climbing, day drinking, mindless shopping fills the void. You get a better picture sure, you have heightened respect for the otherness of existence surely, but people come along and unjustifiably hold the power to change us, for all of our existence.
No doubt Brookner's writing is stunning and illuminating, but there's a flatness that seeps into the narrative pretty early on that remains as such till the end. It's a question of tone and repetition. Brookner writes ethereally, remarkably about these people in long paragraphs but I wish these unravelled before me through their actions, their thoughts, their exchanges. Of course you understand people by observation, but people reveal themselves through their actions too and their way of thinking. Significant relationships get established and broken in the book without the reader having been given anything to hold on to, which was a bit disappointing. It's like the action took place elsewhere and not on the page and the reader only had the second hand account of what transpired.
But what a find nonetheless, Brookner, as a writer has been...
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Reading Progress
May 20, 2023
–
Started Reading
May 20, 2023
– Shelved
May 24, 2023
–
38.04%
"Brookner has been a revelation so far. Such incisive writing.
"When she awoke, rather later than usual, it was with the ancient and deadly foreknowledge that the day would be a write off..... Depression hovered and must be forestalled. Writing was out of the question. Take things very quietly, she counselled herself: do not think. Close doors"."
page
70
"When she awoke, rather later than usual, it was with the ancient and deadly foreknowledge that the day would be a write off..... Depression hovered and must be forestalled. Writing was out of the question. Take things very quietly, she counselled herself: do not think. Close doors"."
May 27, 2023
–
50.0%
"Tiny monster of a novel. Its length is deceiving. Brookner packs so much on a sentence level, you can't rush. You're obligated to slow down, pay attention, absorb, be in awe of her minimalism and then proceed."
May 29, 2023
–
Finished Reading
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Georgia
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May 29, 2023 11:47AM
Muted is how I would describe Brookner's writing. But underneath there is a rage. Try one of her others, Girish. Latecomers is excellent and about two men who are lifelong friends after escaping the Nazis. Another in which more happens on the page is the multi-generational story Family and Friends.
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Hi Georgia. For sure will be trying more of her work. I have three books of hers on my shelf currently: Latecomers, My Friend in England and Providence
Yes, this was the Booker winner, and my least favorite Bookner novel. It fell flat for me, too.
switterbug (Betsey) wrote: "Yes, this was the Booker winner, and my least favorite Bookner novel. It fell flat for me, too."I agree. It doesn't come close to Providence or Look at Me or Incidents in the Rue Laugier.
I haven’t yet read Providence or Rue Laugier— I do have stack of her books unread, though. I did love Look at Me!
I have this and "Family and Friends" on my bookshelves to read. I'll let you know what I think when I get to them.
