Hotel Du Lac (original 1984; edition 1995)

This is a wonderful little book about a single woman, Edith Hope, who is sent by friends to an out-of-the-way hotel in Switzerland after she causes a minor scandal.

Edith is a wonderful character: a novelist (under an assumed name), single with a married lover, somehow both very comfortable in her own skin and insecure at the same time. As she comes to know fellow guests at Hotel du Lac, we come to know her better.

This book is well written in a style that will lend itself to re-reading every few years. I suspect my perspective on Edith will evolve as my life evolves. ( )

This was a reread, for which I treated myself and supplemented my print copy with the audio version narrated by Anna Massey, who won a BAFTA Award (British Academy Film Awards) for her interpretation of Edith Hope, the main character of this novel for a TV adaptation in 1986. The novel is set at the Hotel du Lac, located on lake Geneva in Switzerland, an exclusive family operated business which caters to a clientele which demands high quality and appreciates traditional values. A successful author of romance novels, Edith has been sent there by her friends after an unfortunate incident for which she is expected to atone and must gain in maturity. She meets the few other guests of the hotel close to the end of the tourist season, including the elderly Mrs Pusey and her much too young-looking daughter Jennifer. Mrs Pusey's, who has chosen Edith as a would-be admirer and companion, has an overbearing demeanour and a lifestyle which revolves around buying very expensive things, which make Edith reflect on her own life choices and personality. She also meets the attractive Mr Neville, who offers an easy solution which could change her life for the better (according to some). This is one of those lovely novels where not very much happens in terms of action, but where the characters and their conversations and inner workings are fascinating to read about. It was a five-star read for me the first time around, but now that I'm discovering many other wonderful British authoresses (awful word, sorry, but "female authors" sounds equally wrong somehow) such as Elizabeth Taylor, Muriel Spark and Iris Murdoch, to name just those, I find myself comparing Brookner's Booker Prize winning novel with other works of equal value which makes giving this one the special and rare honour of being counted among the best of my all-time favourites a little bit harder to do. All the same, a deeply satisfying novel I am sure to revisit again and again. ( )

This is a short but pleasant little read and well worth the Booker Prize. It makes you think about love and relationships and has a nice little twist at the end. ( )

"Banished" to a staid, quiet, Swiss hotel, romance novelist Edith Hope finds herself drawn to the other human flotsam that inhabits the hotel at the end of the season.

The friends who sent Edith into exile expect her to find penitence and gather the threads of her life together. It is also convenient for her friends that she is not among them to remind them of her tansgression.

As she observes and interacts with the other guests, her own situation remains to be resolved. When a wealthy, handsome man singles her out for attention, he just might offer the start to the new life everyone seems to think she needs.

This book reminded me in parts of classic authors such as E. M. Forster or Edith Wharton and in parts of Rosamunde Pilcher. I loved it! ( )

Edith who looks like Virginia Woolf and is a author of popular fiction novels, has been ostracized by her circle of friends in London and is spending time in exile at the Hotel du Lac in Switzerland where she meets other guests women all and one man. In the course of the novel we find out about the cause of her banishment and about the sad sad lives of the other guests.

The setting and the characters of this book are alien to me but still I came to love and understand all of them. That was the beauty of the narrative for me. A lovely book. ( )