Jun 15, 2016 02:27 PM
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Dith Hope is a romance novelist who is banished by her friends to the Hotel du Lac on Lake Geneva in order to atone for a transgression, the details of which we don't learn until well into the second half of the book. At the hotel, it is approaching the end of the season and only a handful of long-term guests remain. Edith establishes a routine of writing and spending time with the other guests. Then along comes Mr Neville.
I am quite bemused that this won the Booker in 1984. It's such a simple, slow tale that really doesn't go anywhere. Some have described it as a romantic story - a love story even - but I felt it was almost the opposite. Yes, there was a love in Edith's life, but it was one that society and the other party would not allow her to acknowledge. Maybe I missed the point, but I saw this as a story about relationships of convenience rather than passion.
A brief, well-written, sometimes humorous diversion, but not in the same class as other Booker Prize winners I have read.
