Hotel Splendid (European Women Writers)

Wow. What an unrelenting disaster that constantly gets remade and disfigured. Redonnet's creation is set against a backdrop of water and swallowing sands. In addition to the sponge-like rotting of anything made of wood, everything else is corroding and falling into disrepair. Especially the humans. Even birds. Disease and discomfort permeate the novel as does the swamp's encroachment on anything thought to be stable. The constant bombardment of reality disrupts the head-in-the-clouds utopia wishing to prevail. This is a dream no one should want. And it never stops. Why does anyone read a book like this? And then, why not?

If you like novels about 3 very odd narcistic sisters living in a deteriorating hotel sitting on a an ever-growing swamp then Hotel Splendid is for you.

As a reader, I generally don't like criticizing books because I have tremendous respect for writers and the part of themselves they put into creating something out of nothing. But this was a waste of my time; perhaps it will be time well spent for you.

Una mujer sin nombre, sin edad y sin rostro narra la Pasión del Hotel Splendid, su tesoro, herencia de su abuela, quien lo mandó construir a orillas de un pantano con vida propia. Un hotel al borde de la ruina, que sufre todo tipo de ataques, desde plagas de mosquitos hasta el atasco constante de los sanitarios. Trabajadora infatigable, la narradora se consagra al cuidado de sus clientes, que llegan atraídos por los letreros de neón que brillan en la noche o enviados por la empresa encargada de la construcción de un ferrocarril que podría ser la solución a todos sus problemas, mientras atiende a dos hermanas, Ada, siempre enferma, y Adel, actriz frustrada, en perpetua disputa.

Publicada en 1986 y ahora por primera vez en show more castellano, Hotel Splendid es una novela extraña y cautivadora que se ha comparado con la obra de Annie Ernaux, Franz Kafka o Samuel Beckett, y que sirvió a su autora para presentarse como una de las narradoras más sobresalientes de la literatura francesa. show less

Vingt-trois chants où le "je" d'une femme sans nom, sans âge, sans visage, dit la Passion du Splendid Hôtel, son trésor, sa chose, légué par grand-mère qui l'a fait construire au bord du marais virulent. Splendid Hôtel déjà délabré, attaqué, miné, et qui ne cessera d'endurer tous les fléaux, de souffrir de tous les maux, dont le pire : la tendance fatale de ses sanitaires à se boucher, la narratrice toujours occupée à les déboucher. Laborieuse, infatigable narratrice, toute consacrée aux soins du Splendid Hôtel, dévouée aux malheureux clients - les anonymes, attirés par les enseignes clignotantes, et les professionnels du chemin de fer venus imposer au marais leur grand oeuvre -, harcelée qu'elle est pendant ce show more temps par ses deux surs parasites, Ada la malade et Adel la comédienne ratée, l'une et l'autre semant sans cesse le trouble et la zizanie.

Redonnet's novels have been compared to those of Annie Ernaux, Alain Robbe-Grillet, and Samuel Beckett. She has since acknowledged the crucial influence which Beckett's work has had upon her literary work. And yet she is also notably different from the great master of modern literature. "Where Beckett's characters slide almost inevitably toward extinction, resignation, and silence," Stump points out, "Redonnet's display a force for life and creation that borders on the triumphant. . . . [They] retain even in the darkest situations a remarkable persistence, openness, and above all hope, a hope that may well be, however unspectacularly, repaid in the end." show less