Hotel by Arthur Hailey Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Hotel
Book Review: decent read, but simplistic
Summary: 2 Stars
this book was reasonably engaging (i read it in two evenings) but it has all the complexity of a high schooler's writing assignment. the characters have no subtlety at all; they are either all good or all bad. the chief protagonist is ridiculously good: he quotes minor observances of aristotle on a whim, reads people's minds in every interaction, gives lectures on the chemical equations of metallurgy, makes out with a beautiful high-schooler but knows where to draw the line, recites the history of complicated legal cases from rote memory, instructs firemen how to save lives, singlehandedly prosecutes a rape conviction, singlehandedly solves the local crime of the century, singlehandedly desegregates a large corporation despite hostility from whites and blacks, all while running a hotel, that he doesn't own, but so badly wants and deserves to, if only it wasn't for that awful blemish on his record, if only some benefactor would overlook.
all characters tie in perfectly to the web of plot - no detail or character goes untied. "formulaic" is an understatement. the literal deus ex machina resolution i thought was totally absurd, but that's just me. and of course, all 5 or so plot threads are all resolved justly. everybody gets exactly what they had coming, as we knew literally from the opening sentence. he tries to build some suspense around a few points, but then caves like we know he will. except for one case, which probably makes the author feel oh so clever - i can just picture the author grinning with delight over his typewriter about the guy who got away with it! the author throws in all kinds of very specific hotel operations details, as if giving a report based on one interview. he's quite proud of this, as the bio mentions he spent months doing hotel research (the cover omits showing the pat on the back).
this may be obvious, but i was a tad disappointed. maybe there weren't as many reading choices back in '65, when this was a bestseller for an entire year.
as a side note, the cover of the book pictured at amazon is pretty silly. the hotel is clearly described dozens of times as being 15 stories. not sure what the 3 story hotel on the cover represents, other than a publisher who never read it.
Book Review: great book
Summary: 5 Stars
this one is very well researched ... great ending and absolutely no loose ends
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