The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John MandelMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
In some of the book reviews that I have read, Emily Mandel discourages reading the award-winner Station Eleven in the middle of Pandemic, as it may cause an anxiety. However, she wrote it as if she envisions this new reality, and the counterlife - a what if - in case Covid-19 Pandemic goes as huge as the Georgia Flu, ending the current civilization?
The same counterlife is reflected in this new work, The Glass Hotel, where characters traverse not only in one realm, but also project in the other. Miranda of Neptune Logistics, an administrative assistant that drew the comic book Station Eleven, reprises her role in The Glass Hotel, but in another reality - she is now an executive of the same shipping line, intending to investigate the disappearance of Edna St. Vincent Millay. The latter, being the main character who works at Hotel Caiette disappeared from one set of reality to the next, and on to the next.
Characters arriving and leaving and suddenly appearing kept me amused and frightened. In my mind when I read along was: Why do some people leave so easily? Is there no anchor in them that keeps them grounded? I am seeing characters doing this part of their life and then doing a polar opposite in the next, like Leon Prevant who was once an executive turned vagabond, living the bohemian life traversing from one state to the next. Perhaps this reflects the current trend of us - that we are merely floating in this plane, or time has tick-tocked slowly, not aware of what day it is. This feeling of slowness is not causing boredom, but intrigue.
The novel has a 30-year timeline, but the highlight was in The Office Chorus to which a Polar paragraph has been set:
We had crossed a line, that much was obvious, but it was difficult to say later exactly where that line had been. Or perhaps we'd all had different lines, or crossed the same line at different times.It was the Financial Crash of 2008, where a Ponzi scheme was busted by the FBI. Jonathan Altaikis is a rip-off of Bernard L. Madoff - a market maker, who was arrested for Investment advisor Fraud. (view spoiler) I must warn you, although the book is about Financial Crisis and its consequences, this was not the beginning of the tale or the end of it. You'll realize when you read this in one sitting.
There are pieces of stained glass in the novel, some laid out in the first chapter, in disjointed thoughts of Vincent. If Station Eleven is a mosaic, The Glass Hotel is a kaleidoscope, giving you flashes of imagery when you see a striking quote, or an alluring statement. In addition to the Polar paragraph, I was stricken by this:
Why don't you swallow broken glass?can also be paraphrased as
Why don't you die?That cursed statement is seen early on in he book, but was given full picture near the end. Emily Mandel wanted you to not only to see the colors, but to actually focus of them. However, too much focus make you dizzy, and make you ask if you are still there - or if you have traversed to another plane - a counterlife?
Perhaps when you are done reading, you'll feel off, and ask yourself what today is, because you will never realize at glance that you are still in your corner: staying home in the summer heat, battling this Pandemic. Oh, if you can only wish for a counterlife.
View all my reviews
Walang komento:
Mag-post ng isang Komento