I visualised the homeless woman, Else, as favourite author A.L. Kennedy as seen in this photo where she peers at the camera in a very cryptic way, Say a body. Where none. No mind. Where none. That at least. A place. Where none. For the body. To be in."

Hotel World by Ali Smith | Waterstones

Hotel World is everything a novel should be: disturbing, comforting, funny, challenging, sad, rude, beautiful. The Independent (London) in Smith’s hands, this slender plot serves as an excuse for a delightfully inventive, exuberant, fierce novel of which the real star is not the dead Sara, or any of the living characters, but the author’s vivid, fluent, highly readable prose. HOTEL WORLD was a well-deserved finalist last year for two prestigious British prizes: the Orange Prize and the Booker Prize. . . . I can’t begin to paraphrase all that this dazzling book conveys about humanity and mortality . . .” A character in Hotel World talks of manipulating people with stories. She'll tell lies to them about her life, stories designed to evoke sympathy and pity: she is an orphan, she was neglected by her parents, she was sexually abused by a family friend. The stories are tearjerkers, tropes designed to pull the heartstrings. Someone tells you a story like that and, unless you have no heart, you have to say, "Oh my god! How horrible for you!" Well once again I encounter that remarkable "wretched stream-of-consciousness" that I'm not really a great lover of (Virginia Woolf immediately springing to mind) but somehow it worked very well here. I must confess that I felt like a voyeur travelling in a somewhat sleepy fashion at times through the book but it is an enthralling work. Lise – a receptionist for the Global Hotel, Lise was responsible for inviting Else, the homeless woman, to spend a night there.

Summary

So, there are always parts I like. Some I even like a lot. And that is always when the author lets us get close to a character. But you see, this is Literature with a capital l, so there is much stream and conciousness and lots of parts that are hard to understand on purpose. And the only purpose seems to be to make it harder to get. If I find myself wondering "wait is this section from the point of a ghost too or is that a random other woman?" and feel a little stupid for 'not getting it', it doesn't make me wanna dive it deeper, it makes me wanna hurl the book across the room.

“Woooo Narrative Empathy and the Deconstruction of Convention

Apart from the fact that all five are women and all five are associated in some way with the hotel, they do have things in common. All five seem to be loners. Penny sits in her hotel watching porn films and bemoaning her past (her parents divorced and she became a kleptomaniac). Clare simply regrets her sister. Lise’s only friend seems to be her mother. Else seems to have no friends, not even fellow homeless people. The dead Sara is rejected even by her own corpse.Avoiding any semblance of plot, Smith prefers to follow the wild daydreams and complex interior lives of her characters, and to pursue her own playful ideas and imaginings. And, somehow, she pulls it off magnificently." - Jerome Boyd Maunsell, Evening Standard The second part, "Present Historic", is about a homeless girl (Else) begging for money outside the Hotel.

Hotel World (Smith) - LitLovers Hotel World (Smith) - LitLovers

A masterful, exuberant novel from the Booker Prize-shortlisted, Women's Prize-winning author of How to be both and the critically acclaimed Seasonal quartet I very rarely DNF a book. This was my first by Ali Smith. It started out as a five star, or close to five star read, which is why I'm disappointed, to say the least. Penny Warner – A reporter and journalist, Penny is a paying guest to the Global Hotel, there to review its services.In this voice from beyond the grave Ali Smith has created the perfect literary ghost...imbued with a powerful sense of wonder at the minutiae of everyday sensuality...and her beautiful, vivid descriptions are reinforced by a sharp, unsentimental tongue."- The Times (London)