David Lasky (1)

What happens when you cross improvisational theatre with a literary event looking to create a truly collaborative novel? For me, the answer to that question is Hotel Angeline, a novel written in chapters penned by each of 36 participating authors - including two chapters with a graphic approach to the story - over the course of 6 days. A writing marathon, if you will. The end result: a fun, refreshing and quirky coming-of-age story that has its unexpected left turns while still retaining a show more unified, collective voice.

The story focuses on 14 year-old Alexis Austin, our narrator. Alexis lives in the Hotel Angeline, a run down residential hotel/apartment building her mother Edith runs, with Alexis' assistance, on Seattle's Capitol Hill. The Hotel Angeline has an interesting past, as a former mortuary, and an eccentric group of residents that are as much a part of the building as the creaky stairs and the bad plumbing. While only fourteen, Alexis has been doing more around the hotel to help out since her mom became sick. When one of the residents, LJ, informs Alexis of a phone message he took for Alexis' mom, Alexis takes on adult responsibilities in an effort to keep the life she knows at the Hotel Angeline.

That is all I will mention about the plot as it is difficult to summarize the plot without giving away the interesting plot developments. I loved this novel for a number of reasons. First off, The characters are fantastic. Second, the story is unpredictable, which provided an extra level of interest for me as I am not a fan of formula plots where I can predict what will happen next. Third, it is not just a coming-of-age story. It has a nice mix of mystery, YA, fantasy, comedy and tragedy. Lastly, I loved the fact that you could feel the story shift and develop in unique and wonderful ways under the pen of each author as they took they turn picking up the story where their fellow authors had left off, and just running with it!

If you are expecting exceptional literature, well, as mentioned in the forward written by Garth Stein, "It was never our intention to accomplish in six days what took James Joyce eighteen years to accomplish with Ulysses; we knew we were not writing a literary masterpiece. It was our intention to build a solid, fun story that was a collaboration between three dozen writers, various editors, and an audience both live and virtual - what we created was a community." I think the group hit their mark with Hotel Angeline and I can confidently say that this is a novel I recommend for anyone that is looking for a fun, offbeat and endearing coming of age story. show less

My initial interest in this book came about through my love of Karen Finneyfrock's poetry, but it grew once I learned that this book was created as a part of The Novel: Live. The project was an attempt to have 36 writers take part in a week-long writing marathon live on stage, in which the story would be passed from writer to writer and result in a complete novel. Hotel Angeline is the result of those efforts.

Due to the nature of its creation, there are some holes in the plot here and there show more and some slight disjointedness, and you definitely get a taste of each writer's style (one author presented their chapter in comic book format), which was most recognizable in the dialog. But I was surprised by just how coherent the story is. Each chapter is by a different author and most are written from Alexis' point of view, but her character remained consistent. She's a girl caught up in the madness of her situation, who becomes very lost very quickly.

There are a slew of interesting characters, including a woman who lives as a pirate, Habib the rave, LJ the not-all-there hippy, and many more. If you ignore the unique process of creation, you still have a good story thats twists into surprising and unexpected directions with an unlimately satisfying conclusion. A good read. show less

I didn't expect to like Hotel Angeline. After the first couple of chapters I was tempted to put it down. OK, it was funny and a brave effort at performance art by 36 authors writing in 2-hour stretches in front of an audience, but that doesn't make it a great or even a good novel, right? I was very frustrated by the inability of Alexis to learn from the people around her what her reality was. Are all 14-year olds this dense?! Somewhere around the middle of the book, I began to care about show more her, to hope that she would somehow get herself out of this unholy mess. Finally, I began to see her yearning for normalcy, the desire to be a child again - protected, cared for, loved. We all wish for this sometimes and I am glad that Alexis had the good fortune to find a way. Definitely worth it in the end. show less

The Carter Family: Don't Forget This Song is a fine graphic novel that follows the early country music family as they rise to stardom. It's not as in-depth as the wonderful Will You Miss Me While I'm Gone, but it is a quicker read.

There's an interesting phrase I've picked up since moving to Appalachia: "don't get above your raisin' " -- which is said to someone who thinks they're better than the people around them. The core Carter family -- AP, Sara, and Maybelle -- never got "above their show more raisin'." They were a poor family who really lucked into success. The graphic novel stays very close to this theme, showing the simple life the Carters returned to when not touring or recording.

Of course, the songs the Carter Family recorded are the real story, and this book shows how the Appalachian region was a major influence. Each of the chapter titles comes from the name of a Carter Family song, although sometimes it's not particularly easy to figure out the connection between the song title and the chapter it describes. The book comes with a CD filled with a handful of obscure tunes, which is what I would have liked to have seen with Will You Miss Me. One thing that might have made this book a little better is noting in the story that a particular song was available on the CD, since it does not include the "expected" ones (likely due to huge licensing fees).

I liked the strange cartoon-realism mix of the characters -- it reminded me of Gasoline Alley, which probably dates me and my comics reading. Sometimes, though, the characters are hard to distinguish (Sara and Maybelle look very much alike, although Maybelle usually has the curly hair). The lettering is very slight and small, so combined with the thick "country" accent (crick for creek, t for to), it makes for challenging reading for those with less-than-strong eyesight.

In my review of Will You Miss Me, I grumbled that book ended a little too "soon" -- it didn't give much indication that the Carter Family was rediscovered in the folk revival of the 1960s, or that the Carter Family Fold still exists and runs shows throughout the summer. Likewise, this book pretty much stops in 1942 -- much earlier than Will You Miss Me -- and thus does not really even cover Maybelle's later career touring with her daughters (as the "Carter Sisters"). Rumor has it that may be a second volume; if so, I'm looking forward to that.

This isn't a deep-thinking book -- in places it seems the pace is glacial -- but overall it gives an impressive visual picture of the Carter Family's rise to success. Will You Miss Me is better if you have some familiarity with the Carter Family's discography; Don't Forget This Song is a good choice if you're just learning about this early country music pioneer.

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LT Haiku:

Shows (and sings!) life of
country music family
becoming famous. show less