Month: May 2024

The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel – Book Review

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The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel - Book Cover

After achieving worldwide fame with “Station Eleven,” St. John Mandel waited six years to release her next book. Achieving worldwide fame, obviously, might be like winning a Nobel Prize. Afterward, it’s somehow harder to concentrate on writing. Finding topics becomes more difficult, everything seems to progress slower. In the case of “The Glass Hotel,” it’s not easy to determine what it’s actually about. Because it’s definitely not about a glass hotel.

Is The Glass Hotel just a transparent trick?

Emily St. John Mandel’s book is like listening to a classical music piece. Certain themes, or rather characters, recur throughout, seemingly randomly. One character takes the spotlight at one point, another at another. Some only gain prominence in the final third of the novel, while others appear at the beginning and merely reappear towards the end.

The titular location, the Hotel Caiette, stands in the forest in a secluded cove on Vancouver Island, Canada. It’s only accessible by boat. (It seems they skipped the preliminary market research before construction.) Thirty percent of the book’s characters work here (some only for a fleeting moment), 10 percent are occasional guests, and 5 percent are owners who don’t participate in managing the hotel but have a stake in it for investment purposes.

Alright, ‘The Glass Hotel’ isn’t such a bad title after all, even though the book is much more about the psychology of financial investments.

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Fairy Tale by Stephen King – Book Review

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There are other worlds than these

Fairy Tale by Stephen King – Book cover

Okay, we already know this. Especially Stephen King readers, considering you just have to think of the Dark Tower series, which delves into this theme partially. King has likely written every kind of book by now. However, a fairy tale hasn’t emerged from his witch’s kitchen yet. Until now. Although the fourth installment of the aforementioned series (The Wind Through the Keyhole) comes pretty close. And while it’s typical in the works of the American master for fundamentally unrelated universes to intertwine, it’s not questionable that with a fairy tale, you need to venture into another world. Well, if you can bear with it until then.

Thorough preparation for the unknown

Roughly one-third of Stephen King’s heavyweight Fairy Tale is just the introduction. What other authors accomplish in twenty pages, he generously multiplies by ten. (Perhaps even half would be MORE than enough.) Of course, when it comes to him, this is a forgivable offense. If someone can write so captivatingly about a grumpy old man and his decrepit, old dog, then there’s nothing to do but read on. Especially since King continuously piques your curiosity. And the slow-starting friendship between the old man harboring mythical secrets and the well-meaning, penance-prepared Charlie Reade is also hindered by numerous difficulties and vile villains.

To pave a direct path from the acquaintance of Mr. Bowditch and Charlie to another world, some authorial assistance doesn’t hurt. This thing has a name. It’s called: Radar. Who happens to be a dog.

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On Target by Mark Greaney – Book Review

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On Target by Mark Greaney – Book Cover

Mark Greaney’s Gray Man book series received a new boost when Netflix produced a film (IMDb) based on the first book with a substantial budget. It’s a shame the movie didn’t turn out too well. Perhaps because the book it’s based on wasn’t that great either? (There’s a chance.) Let’s see how the second installment, “On Target,” fares.

Courtland Gentry, alias the Gray Man, a hired assassin. It’s not the best profession in the world, by any means, but one can’t be too choosy. Especially when his former employer, the CIA, puts him on a hit list. The Gray Man is thus forced to kill people of various other colors for his daily bread. His latest assignment takes him to Sudan, where the ruthless dictator, President Bakri Abbud is really starting to push the genocide way too far.

But even before the protagonist heads to Africa, the introduction of “On Target” makes it clear that the Gray Man is the most compassionate hitman in the whole world.

The Gray Man is the most compassionate hitman in the world!

This is not a joke! It’s a well-known fact that among those who kill for money, there are remarkably many noble and kind employee. For whom it’s a basic rule to only deal with evil targets. (See: Stephen King: Billy Summers.) However, Mark Greaney’s protagonist stands out even among them for his compassion. When he sits down to have a chat over a few shots (of whiskey) with his next target (another hitman, who is not as kind-hearted), you can’t help but sympathize with the latter’s personal issues. The Gray Man feels the same way. You practically have to choke him to bring out a little callousness.

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