A review by unabridgedchick
Hotel Angeline: A Novel in 36 Voices, by Karen Finneyfrock, Jennie Shortridge, Elizabeth George, William Dietrich, Jarret Middleton, Frances McCue, Susan Wiggs, Erica Bauermeister, Robert Dugoni, Deb Caletti, Garth Stein, Kathleen Alcalá, Jamie Ford, Erik Larson, Stephanie Kallos, Suzanne Selfors
2.0
Unfortunately, my favorite part of this potentially fascinating novel was the forward and introduction. A fascinating mix of performance art and literary experiment, this novel was born out of a brainstorm to raise awareness about Seattle's literary scene. A basic outline was created and the authors given free reign to interpret and move the story along as they saw fit. Totally neat and super exciting.
From the start, I didn't connect with the story or characters. Alexis is an interesting enough teenager in a very sad situation, but the secondary characters were all so unappealing and the plot so over-the-top that I just couldn't connect with Alexis -- and worse, come to care about her. The running of a residential hotel is very novel and that part intrigued me, but the tenants are all child-adults stuck in the '60s. I think they were meant to be quirky and funny and a little bit pathetic, but I found myself angry and irritated with them -- so much so, I couldn't imagine why Alexis continued to enable them as she did.
I wanted very much to experience Seattle as a character, but despite the numerous mentions of neighborhoods and a few landmarks, I didn't get a sense of the city in the story. Alexis could have been in any liberal urban area; I didn't feel as if Seattle (or the Pacific Northwest) was particularly noticeable in the narrative. Missing that connection, then, all her running around the city was tiresome to me and seemed to be a space filler.
Overall, the quality of the writing was good (I've added about a dozen new writers to my TBR) and for me, the weakness was the story. I just didn't dig the plot. But I enjoyed the language and the sort of kaleidoscopic way each author eyed Alexis and her plight. Seattle folks might enjoy this novel for it's setting, and fans of avant garde fiction might get a kick out of writing-as-performance. Anyone who enjoys reading-as-experience will like the forward and I recommend this book for that alone!
From the start, I didn't connect with the story or characters. Alexis is an interesting enough teenager in a very sad situation, but the secondary characters were all so unappealing and the plot so over-the-top that I just couldn't connect with Alexis -- and worse, come to care about her. The running of a residential hotel is very novel and that part intrigued me, but the tenants are all child-adults stuck in the '60s. I think they were meant to be quirky and funny and a little bit pathetic, but I found myself angry and irritated with them -- so much so, I couldn't imagine why Alexis continued to enable them as she did.
I wanted very much to experience Seattle as a character, but despite the numerous mentions of neighborhoods and a few landmarks, I didn't get a sense of the city in the story. Alexis could have been in any liberal urban area; I didn't feel as if Seattle (or the Pacific Northwest) was particularly noticeable in the narrative. Missing that connection, then, all her running around the city was tiresome to me and seemed to be a space filler.
Overall, the quality of the writing was good (I've added about a dozen new writers to my TBR) and for me, the weakness was the story. I just didn't dig the plot. But I enjoyed the language and the sort of kaleidoscopic way each author eyed Alexis and her plight. Seattle folks might enjoy this novel for it's setting, and fans of avant garde fiction might get a kick out of writing-as-performance. Anyone who enjoys reading-as-experience will like the forward and I recommend this book for that alone!