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The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel
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it was amazing
bookshelves: 2020, e-book, audible

But does a person have to be either admirable or awful? Does life have to be so binary? Two things can be true at the same time, he told himself.
...
What does it mean to be a ghost, let alone to be there, or here? There are so many ways to haunt a person, or a life—
...
“It’s possible to both know and not know something,” he said later under cross-examination, and the state tore him to pieces over this. But he spoke for several of us actually, several of us who’d been thinking a great deal about that doubleness, that knowing and not knowing, being honorable and not being honorable, knowing you’re not a good person but trying to be a good person regardless around the margins of the bad.
...
One of our signature flaws as a species: we will risk almost anything to avoid looking stupid.

When I read her post-apocalyptic masterpiece Station Eleven a few years ago, I was blown away by Ms. Mandel’s talent as a writer. So there was no way I was going to skip The Glass Hotel, even though I was alternatively nervous about both the appeal of the subject matter and having sky-high expectations.

I need not have worried. Ms. Mandel has delivered another beautiful story. Like in Station Eleven, The Glass Hotel moves back and forth over a twenty-year period to tell the slowly connecting stories of about a dozen people affected by a catastrophe: in this case, the Great Recession. Once again, the quality of the writing is dazzling. The characterization and descriptions are exceptional, and each of the characters and locales comes fully to life. Take, for example, the description of the Hotel Caiette, the title’s glass hotel:
“Our guests in Caiette 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. They want to be wilderness-adjacent. The point here”—he touched the white star with one finger, and Walter admired his manicure—“is extraordinary luxury in an unexpected setting. There’s an element of surrealism to it, frankly. It’s a five-star experience in a place where your cell phone doesn’t work.”

There’s so much description in that single paragraph—about the hotel and its guests—that’s symbolic without ever feeling forced or pretentious. And it hints at themes of self-deception that are explored throughout the novel. The Glass Hotel is that rarest of works: an accessible, moving work of literary fiction. Highly recommended.

P.S. What were the odds that Ms. Mandel would release a book during the aftermath of the Great Recession about a pandemic, and then release a book during a pandemic about the Great Recession? The timing is almost impossible to believe.
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Quotes Blaine Liked

Emily St. John Mandel
“It is possible to leave so much out of any given story.”
Emily St. John Mandel, The Glass Hotel

Emily St. John Mandel
“Imagining an alternate reality where there was no Iraq War, for example, or where the terrifying new swine flu in the Republic of Georgia hadn’t been swiftly contained; an alternate world where the Georgia flu blossomed into an unstoppable pandemic and civilization collapsed.”
Emily St. John Mandel, The Glass Hotel

Emily St. John Mandel
“What kept her in the kingdom was the previously unimaginable condition of not having to think about money, because that’s what money gives you: the freedom to stop thinking about money. If you’ve never been without, then you won’t understand the profundity of this, how absolutely this changes your life.”
Emily St. John Mandel, The Glass Hotel

Emily St. John Mandel
“A revelation earned only in hindsight: beauty can have a corrosive effect on character. It is possible to coast for some years on no more than a few polished lines and a dazzling smile, and those years are formative.”
Emily St. John Mandel, The Glass Hotel

Emily St. John Mandel
“There is exquisite lightness in waking each morning with the knowledge that the worst has already happened.”
Emily St. John Mandel, The Glass Hotel

Emily St. John Mandel
“There's something almost tedious about disaster," Miranda said. "Don't you find? I mean, at first it's all dramatic, 'Oh my god, the economy collapsing, there was a run on my bank so my bank ceased to exist over the weekend and got swallowed up by JPMorgan Chase,' but then that keeps happening, it just keeps collapsing, week after week, and at a certain point...”
Emily St. John Mandel, The Glass Hotel

Emily St. John Mandel
“But does a person have to be either admirable or awful? Does life have to be so binary? Two things can be true at the same time, he told himself.”
Emily St. John Mandel, The Glass Hotel

Emily St. John Mandel
“Our guests in Caiette 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. They want to be wilderness-adjacent. The point here”—he touched the white star with one finger, and Walter admired his manicure—“is extraordinary luxury in an unexpected setting. There’s an element of surrealism to it, frankly. It’s a five-star experience in a place where your cell phone doesn’t work.”
Emily St. John Mandel, The Glass Hotel

Emily St. John Mandel
“I mean, here’s the question,” Joelle said, “and I’d be genuinely interested to hear your thoughts: How did he know we’d do it? Would anyone do something like this, given enough money, or is there something special about us? Did he look at me one day and just think, That woman seems conveniently lacking in a moral center, that person seems well suited to participate in a—”
Emily St. John Mandel, The Glass Hotel

Emily St. John Mandel
“What does it mean to be a ghost, let alone to be there, or here? There are so many ways to haunt a person, or a life—”
Emily St. John Mandel, The Glass Hotel

Emily St. John Mandel
“It’s possible to both know and not know something,” he said later under cross-examination, and the state tore him to pieces over this. But he spoke for several of us actually, several of us who’d been thinking a great deal about that doubleness, that knowing and not knowing, being honorable and not being honorable, knowing you’re not a good person but trying to be a good person regardless around the margins of the bad.”
Emily St. John Mandel, The Glass Hotel

Emily St. John Mandel
“One of our signature flaws as a species: we will risk almost anything to avoid looking stupid.”
Emily St. John Mandel, The Glass Hotel


Reading Progress

September 28, 2019 – Shelved
September 28, 2019 – Shelved as: to-read
June 18, 2020 – Started Reading
June 23, 2020 – Finished Reading
June 27, 2020 – Shelved as: 2020
March 5, 2022 – Shelved as: e-book
August 26, 2023 – Shelved as: audible

Comments Showing 1-1 of 1 (1 new)

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Jannelies (living between hope and fear) Blaine, great review, thank you!


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