Book Review - The Glass hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
This is a strange book review, because I find it difficult to describe ‘the glass hotel’. More than any other author recently, Emily St. John Mandel generates a feeling in me. There’s unease with modern living, familiarity and something incredibly profound. I can read a couple of paragraphs and know I’m reading a book by her. I find her writing incredibly distinctive.
“There is exquisite lightness in waking each morning with the knowledge that the worst has already happened.”
What’s the book about?
There’s a Ponzi scheme. A huge freighter that carries containers back and forth across the oceans. A glass hotel on an isolated island that you have to travel to by boat. Strange graffiti. A federal prison. A pied-à-terre in Manhattan.
The characters come and go in ‘the glass hotel’ and there’s usually a connection between them. My favourite was probably Vincent, dealing with the loss of her mother in a boating accident, and who’s a bit lost. She’s sent to live with her aunt in Vancouver.
And her half brother Paul, out of rehab and attending college. He has an interest in electronic music and would like to pursue that. But something happens that sends Pauls life into a tailspin.
There are other characters - the wealthy Jonathan Alkaitis, Walter the hotel manager, Olivia Collins who was an artist in the seventies. And Leon Prevant and Miranda, shipping executives who also appear in ‘Station eleven.’
But Adrian…What’s the book about?
‘The glass hotel’ burrowed it’s way into my head and I’m still not sure what it’s about. A lot of it is about memories, and how our mind is a constant broiling sea of regrets. Ghosts appear, conjured from guilt and pain. And it’s especially about the unreliable nature of these memories.
“Memories are always bent retrospectively to fit individual narratives”
But the characters, I feel I know them and they have bits of all of us. They’re all a little lost, and searching for meaning in their lives. They’re all settled in places that don’t have roots, sandcastles just waiting.
They share a deep loneliness, and are trying to find ways to fill that hole. Sometimes they do, sometimes they don’t. It made me think of an line from Henry Miller that I read long ago - ‘We are all of one universe but are separated like the stars.’
“One of our signature flaws as a species: we will risk almost anything to avoid looking stupid.”
Multi-layered
I understand this is a pretty poor book review and I apologise. Like I say, I’ve finished this book a few days now and I just can’t manage to nail down my thoughts on it. It’s only my second Emily St John Mandel book but on each occasion I immediately have an urge to check what else she has written. I find her prose mesmerising, so precise and the images often startling.
‘The glass hotel’ is a Multi layered book, with flawed characters who have believable stories, and the writing weaves a spell. The narrative isn’t always linear, like our memories, and we move back and forth on the characters timelines. It’s delicately constructed. It’s a puzzle and I’m not sure I worked it all out, or even want to. But it means I’ll definitely be rereading this for a long time to come.
It’s too simple to say this book is haunting, and eIegaic, but that’s the best I can do. I can’t get the characters out of my head. I’m going to let ‘The glass hotel’ sit with me for a few weeks, maybe months, then it’ll be onto ‘Sea of tranquility.’
Maybe this book review thing isn’t for me!
The glass hotel - Emily St John Mandel
Hardcover, 302 pages
Published March 24th 2020 by Knopf Publishing Group