Deepa Gahlot
  • Cinemaah
  • Dramaah
    • Review
    • Interview
  • Literataah
  • Feministaah
  • Nostalgiaah
  • Miscellaniaah
  • Contact Me

Deepa Gahlot

  • Cinemaah
  • Dramaah
    • Review
    • Interview
  • Literataah
  • Feministaah
  • Nostalgiaah
  • Miscellaniaah
  • Contact Me
Literataah

The Glass Hotel – Literataah

by Deepa Gahlot June 3, 2020
written by Deepa Gahlot June 3, 2020
The Glass Hotel – Literataah

And All Falls Down:

Emily St. John Mandel follows up her powerful novel, Station Eleven, about a global pandemic (sci-fi is turning out to be true) with The Glass Hotel, which also seems to be picked from the headlines and given her unique voice.

On the bestseller charts for weeks, the intricately plotted novel with interesting and sympathetic characters, is, among other things, about the ephemeral nature of happiness. An insignificant prank of schoolgirl vandalism—when a young Vincent (named after the writer Edna St. Vincent Millay) defaces a window of her school with an acid pen—has a huge impact years later, when some lives are wrecked and some irrevocably altered, by a random act of imitation.

Written in a non-linear style, the novel follows the lives of half siblings, Paul and Vincent, and at the centre is the glass hotel of the title, in British Columbia, built in the middle of nowhere, accessible only by boat, and with no cell or wi-fi signal, to give rich travellers a way to escape the world for a while, in luxury. As the hotel’s manager says, “Our guests … want to come to the wilderness, but they don’t want to be in the wilderness. They just want to look at it, ideally through the window of a luxury hotel. … There’s an element of surrealism to it, frankly.”

As the two zig-zag through improbable turning points in their lives, everything unravels because of a Ponzi scheme, planned by a Bernie Madoff-like character, the super rich investment banker, Jonathan Alkaitis.

After dealing with their own traumas—Paul’s drug addiction and Vincent’s unmooring caused by her mother’s sudden death—they both wind up working at hotel. While she is tending bar, she meets the much older Alkaitis, who takes her away from there into a “kingdom of money”, where all she has to do is look pretty on his arm and be ready “whenever he wanted her, in and out of the bedroom, (and) she would be elegant and impeccable at all times.”  They pretend to be married, though Alkaitis is still mourning the death of his wife.

As the house of cards built by Alkaitis is set for a spectacular fall, the book looks the other characters who would be impacted by the disaster, his employees, his ruined investors and his embittered daughter, who resents the presence of younger-than-her Vincent in her father’s life.

Vincent has a chameleon-like ability to adapt to circumstances, whether it is as a working girl in a bleak space or as a woman of leisure, spending her days shopping, with the  “the freedom to stop thinking about money” given to her by Alkaitis. But she knows she does not really belong to that kingdom, and is able to leave it all behind when the time comes to pick an unlikely vocation.

The elegant writing, the fragmented narrative structure, and above all, empathy towards even the flawed characters, makes The Glass Hotel, both readable and memorable.  As a post-Covid world has already proved, nothing can be taken for granted, least of all love and loyalty.

The Glass Hotel

By Emily St. John Mandel

Publisher: Knopf

Pages: 320

Book ReviewEmily St. John MandelThe Glass Hotel
FacebookTwitterGoogle +Pinterest
Deepa Gahlot

I listened to film stories as bedtime tales, got a library card as soon as I could read, and was taken to the theatre when I was old enough to stay awake. So, I grew up to love books, movies and plays. I have been writing about them for the better part of a quarter century, won a National Award for film criticism, wrote several books, edited magazines, had writings included in anthologies... work has been fun!

previous post
Traitor To The Cause? – Feministaah
next post
Piya Ka Ghar (1972) – Nostalgiaah

You may also like

Tell Me What I Am – Book Review

July 29, 2024

Brotherless Night – Book Review

July 1, 2024

Real Estate: The Good, The Bad & The...

August 31, 2022

The Locked Room – Book Review

March 16, 2022

Dead Man’s Grave – Book Review

January 22, 2022

The Lincoln Highway – Book Review

December 26, 2021

The Man Who Died Twice – Book Review

October 11, 2021

The Madness Of Crowds – Book Review

September 21, 2021

Billy Summers – Book Review

September 15, 2021

The Devil’s Advocate — Book Review

August 23, 2021

About Me

About Me

I listened to film stories as bedtime tales, got a library card as soon as I could read, and was taken to the theatre when I was old enough to stay awake. So, I grew up to love books, movies and plays. I have been writing about them for the better part of a quarter century, won a National Award for film criticism, wrote several books, edited magazines, had writings included in anthologies... work has been fun!

Subscribe To My Newsletter And Stay Updated With My New Posts

Recent Posts

  • In Transit – Web Series Review

    June 16, 2025
  • Call Of The Courtesan – Feministaah

    June 16, 2025
  • Stolen – OTT Movie Review

    June 15, 2025

Keep in touch

Facebook Twitter Instagram
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram

Copyright 2020. All Rights Reserved by Deepa Gahlot. Designed by FQI


Back To Top