A victory in retreat

Written relatively early in her career as a novelist this is the book for which Brookner won the Man Booker prize.

It tells the story of a woman on a sort of retreat from her life in London. She finds herself as one of a shrinking number of guests in an old fashioned, courtly hotel beside a Swiss lake. With the arrival of autumn the season is coming to an end and the hotel will soon close for the winter. Before she leaves her short stay must be concluded by a decision that will set the course for her future life.

Compared to her later work this is a younger writer’s book. It is not as dominated by introspection and there are crisply drawn, amusing characters and a plot of sorts to maintain engagement. As always with Brookner the writing is superbly crafted. The result is a perfect gem and a great introduction to her work.

Finally the exemplary reading by Anna Massey is an outstanding, enriching performance for which the word “reading” is not an adequate description.

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A very cosy tale

Anna Massey is always a joy to listen to. The story is full of characters beautifully described.

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What a treat!

On the occasion of Anita Brookner's death this month I turned again to her Booker Prize winning novel but not to the print version forgotten on my bookshelf for decades but to this audio book. I didn't remember Brookner's intriguing intelligent and sharp-tongued diction that alone is a pleasure but presented by Anna Massey it is a pure delight!

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Utterly wonderful writing

Beautifully written and read, I really cannot recommend this short novel enough. The author compresses such life into not only our heroine, but into all of the strange guests at Hotel du Luc.

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hotel down on your luck

as usual the narration was excellent., though this not a book I would have picked up and read.

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Writing for the Tortoise market

Anita Brookner is the best British contemporary author there is and this novel displays most of the traits that have become her trade-marks - but is not the best, simply serving as a pointer to a whole treasure-trove oeuvre that I have loved over the years. Going back to the first novel, it is now easy to see the parallels between this novel and the works of Edith Wharton and the ubiquitous Jane Austen, to whom all female English authors are condemned to be compared with. Brookner herself makes the case for Virginia Woolf within the narrative - but this is clearly just a knowing trick, as is the Forsterian mechanism of the bedroom door in the middle of the night.
In my view, Anita Brookner easily transcends the literary inheritance with which she is shackled and makes the case for clear, deep thinking about gender in art and life that speaks directly to the dogged reader. Hotel du Lac is indeed writing for the Tortoise market, but not in the way Edith’s agent characterises it. In subsequent works, I’ve seen at first hand the searing, uncompromising vision that is brought to the ‘lives less lived’ cast of characters.
Here, finally, the protagonist breaks free. An intellectual freedom is asserted. I’m afraid, however, that we live largely in a world of hares - and who knows that the girl in the harem-scar’em pants doesn’t have the ultimate truth tucked under that low cut up-market, high end, low taste top.
If you have not read Anita Brookner before, what better place to start, if, like me you are familiar with the best of authors then it is wonderful to revisit this old and trusted friend.

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A class act

An old love of mine, this marvellous book, I felt it was time to revisit it and see if it still sat high on my list of favourite reads. Happy to report it’s power remains undiminished. A thoroughly gripping story, peopled with (mostly) ghastly characters, in scenes and situations brought vividly to life by Ms Brookner’s elegantly perfect prose.
Having seen, and loved, the terrifically talented Anna Massey as our doughty heroine in, I believe, a BBC production many years ago, I was delighted to discover that it is she who is the narrator in this Audible production. What a treat! Her mastery of the ‘read’ word is astonishing, and I can’t wait to relisten to it. Highly recommended.

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Superb narration of this beautifully-crafted novella

I read Hôtel du Lac in my early twenties, and loved it. I was browsing for a new audiobook; and was delighted to find it here - especially as Anna Massey was the narrator. The latter' unmistakably elegant and crisp diction, inflections and tempo were the perfect match for this book. Now aged 50, this time around I appreciated Anita Brookner's Edith from a perspective I couldn't have grasped 30 years ago - much as I relished that first reading of it.

Listening to the wonderful Anna Massey's reading of it felt a little like a meditation, and has left me serene, reflective and satisfied. It is a masterpiece of poignant subtlety, humanity and empathy - conveyed through a gentle austerity of words; and punctuated with flashes of wry, understated humour and irony in deliciously acute observations.

This *is* deep and meaningful writing - but delivered delicately; and without any of the pretentiousness, verbosity or self-consciousness that can be the downfall of some other books in this genre. Go on retreat with Edith at the lake for an afternoon and immerse yourself in this delightful, thoughtful, and quietly uplifting book!

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Hotel du Lac 5*

Beautiful story of self-awareness and love. Expertly crafted and narrated. Timeless in its theme and worthy winner of the Booker prize.

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A revisit

I read Hotel du Lac some thirty five years ago and still remember the refrain that echoes through the book. ‘Think again Edith. You have made a false equation”. This version, read by the incomparable Anna Massey, increased my enjoyment of and respect for both the author and the narrator. Set in a grand Swiss hotel, the protagonist, Edith, encounters a motley but small group of people, all of whom come to life in their strange ordinariness. Edith is a writer of romantic novels and is constantly seeing life through the novelist’s lens, obsessively making up stories about the people she meets, then writing letters which she never sends, to her lover, David, who is married. Her own life is also scrutinised both by her, and also by a male inhabitant at the hotel, where Edith has been sent to recover from ..... I won’t say since this is a secret for a large part of the book. The book ends with a shocking disclosure which reminds the reader that Edith has undoubtedly “made a false equation”.
Altogether an unforgettable listening experience.

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