The Glass Hotel

Loved the book! Emily has become one f my fav writers after Station 11

Station eleven is one of my favourite books of all time. But this one just never quite grabbed me.No one writes like Emily St. John Mandel. That's why I pre-order this book as soon as I could. But I'm immensely unsatisfied with this book.Perhaps my expectations were too high. The characters were confused and lonely, and the story was a series of vignettes and memories of struggles and ghosts. But, the characters didn't seem real to me…This is a simple story made too complex in an effort to have everyone's lives overlap. Mandel has shown that each character's actions are the result of the actions of someone else. Everyone's story intersects through a Ponzi scheme and the story jumps back and forth in time to explore lives prior to and after the collapse of the scheme.I feel like I missed the point… Every time we got close to something interesting on the plot, the narrative would move away to something mundane and the time jumps seamed to brush over important moments…The writing on the glass window; why was everyone so upset about it? I don't get it…

Having enjoyed Station Eleven, I was eager to read The Glass Hotel and was not disappointed. There are similarities between the books; some "cross-over" characters and events. The theme is similar - how do people behave when things fall apart? The writing is superb and it is a joy to read. Knowing the West Coast setting well, I felt transported and could relate to the characters and how they appreciated and/or detested the isolation. I have less experience running a Ponzi scheme, but the descriptions of the 17th floor rang true. Definitely a book that deserves the five-star ratings that it has abundantly received.

Glass Hotel è un libro staordinario, affascinante, intrigante e informativo.Diversi personaggi si trovano e si perdono nel corso di un ventennio durante il quale avvengono cose drammatiche che cambiano la vita sul nostro pianeta.I protagonisti non sono eroi ma persone con dubbi, debolezze e ombre scure dentro, che li porteranno alle loro tragiche e meno tragiche fini, sempre come in un carousel più forte di loro.

Glass: fragile but strong, and apparently transparent, yet often creating an illusory effect. So it is with the characters in Emily St John Mandel's follow up to Station Eleven. As with several of her novels, we catch a fleeting glimpse of one or two cast members from that book and there are recurrent themes: how we cope (or not) with catastrophic collapse, loyalty and friendship, and international merchant shipping. Any reader of Mandel's big novel will sense the foreboding looming over what we take for granted, just as in other novels - in this case financial systems. Featuring the same characters subtly suggests they're in for another big shock when pandemic from Station Eleven hits in a few years too.Vincent in particular is terrifically complex: moody, thoughtful, selfish but maybe not, superficial but then again... And we are conflicted by rooting for her despite her obvious deficiencies, not least the company she keeps.So if this is not Mandel's best, and it is not, that is only because she has set the bar very high.