Scan barcode
A review by fallonc
Hotel by Joanna Walsh
4.0
Hotel contemplates what it means to live and what constitutes home: "To 'stay' in a hotel is never like 'living' at home." We live in homes, so if one is not living in something that can be considered home--whether that be an apartment, dorm or trailer--is one living at all?
Walsh is a hotel reviewer looking for a place to spend her time other than home. "Hotel" recounts some of her experiences in hotels and what she learned about living during her time in the rooms that have revolving inhabitants. Interrupted by interludes of her failing marriage and the complicated feeling that come with the beginning of the end, Walsh's addition to Object Lessons is part memoir, part creative nonfiction. Her control over language, creating dual meaning from her hotel experiences and the state of her marriage, leaves the reader reading and rereading lines such as:
"On the screen, I keep checking the time: where I am, where you are, the thickness of house between I cannot wait any longer. The thick white hotel towels are restless. They want me to get into the water. They are the white pills. Usually you snap them in half, which makes a satisfactory sound--no, the echo of a sound, no noise."
and create meaning even when her audience changes from the reader, to her husband to herself:
"The square white bath has a crack across its corner...A pool pools underneath. I call room service. It is not my fault, but I must leave the room and walk through the white streets under the white sun until it is fixed. It is "not" my fault. The thing is: What am I allowed? If I don't "need" anything in particular, what am I allowed to want?...When you're not here, sometimes the problem doesn't seem to be you. It doesn't seem to be you at all."
I rate this book 4 because of Walsh's peculiar perspective, way of integrating hotels and separation and impeccable writing. However, Walsh spends much of her book discussing Freud, and a reader should be aware of before reading "Hotel." Without knowledge of his work, one has trouble making sense of many of the connections in "Hotel." As one who knows little to nothing about Freud other than his slip, I was left stranded during this sometimes page long musings. Likewise, Walsh cities the "Grand Hotel" film to describe her experiences and it is difficult to get through that part as well without prior knowledge. I cannot speak to these parts nor their relevance in the text; yet it should be noted that, even without completely understanding nearly half of it, the book is one that can still be considered very good.
Walsh is a hotel reviewer looking for a place to spend her time other than home. "Hotel" recounts some of her experiences in hotels and what she learned about living during her time in the rooms that have revolving inhabitants. Interrupted by interludes of her failing marriage and the complicated feeling that come with the beginning of the end, Walsh's addition to Object Lessons is part memoir, part creative nonfiction. Her control over language, creating dual meaning from her hotel experiences and the state of her marriage, leaves the reader reading and rereading lines such as:
"On the screen, I keep checking the time: where I am, where you are, the thickness of house between I cannot wait any longer. The thick white hotel towels are restless. They want me to get into the water. They are the white pills. Usually you snap them in half, which makes a satisfactory sound--no, the echo of a sound, no noise."
and create meaning even when her audience changes from the reader, to her husband to herself:
"The square white bath has a crack across its corner...A pool pools underneath. I call room service. It is not my fault, but I must leave the room and walk through the white streets under the white sun until it is fixed. It is "not" my fault. The thing is: What am I allowed? If I don't "need" anything in particular, what am I allowed to want?...When you're not here, sometimes the problem doesn't seem to be you. It doesn't seem to be you at all."
I rate this book 4 because of Walsh's peculiar perspective, way of integrating hotels and separation and impeccable writing. However, Walsh spends much of her book discussing Freud, and a reader should be aware of before reading "Hotel." Without knowledge of his work, one has trouble making sense of many of the connections in "Hotel." As one who knows little to nothing about Freud other than his slip, I was left stranded during this sometimes page long musings. Likewise, Walsh cities the "Grand Hotel" film to describe her experiences and it is difficult to get through that part as well without prior knowledge. I cannot speak to these parts nor their relevance in the text; yet it should be noted that, even without completely understanding nearly half of it, the book is one that can still be considered very good.