The Paragon Hotel

By: Lyndsay Faye

Narrated by: January LaVoy

Length: 13 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

A gun moll with a knack for disappearing flees from Prohibition-era Harlem to Portland's Paragon Hotel.

The year is 1921, and "Nobody" Alice James has just arrived in Oregon with a bullet wound, a lifetime's experience battling the New York Mafia, and 50,000 dollars in illicit cash. She befriends Max, a Black Pullman porter who reminds her achingly of home and who saves Alice by leading her to the Paragon Hotel.

But her unlikely sanctuary turns out to be an all-Black hotel in a Jim Crow city, and its lodgers seem unduly terrified of a White woman on the premises. As she meets the churlish Dr. Pendleton, the stately Mavereen, and the club chanteuse Blossom Fontaine, she understands their dread. The Ku Klux Klan has arrived in Portland in fearful numbers - burning crosses, electing officials, infiltrating newspapers, and brutalizing Blacks. And only Alice and her new Paragon "family" are searching for a missing mulatto child who has mysteriously vanished into the woods. To untangle the web of lies and misdeeds around her, Alice will have to answer for her own past, too.

A richly imagined novel starring two indomitable heroines, The Paragon Hotel at once plumbs the darkest parts of America's past and the most redemptive facets of humanity. From international best-selling, multi-award-nominated writer Lyndsay Faye, it's a masterwork of historical suspense.

©2019 Lyndsay Faye (P)2019 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Utterly winning...Faye writes a good puzzle...[and she’s] a person meant to write, who thinks and jokes and understands by writing. It’s a rare gift..” (New York Times Book Review)

“The Paragon Hotel is set a century ago, but its themes of social and cultural upheaval feel sufficiently fresh that you might think twice about calling Lyndsay Faye’s sixth novel historical fiction. But calling it terrific - not for a minute should you hesitate to do that.... The great strength of 'The Paragon Hotel' is Ms. Faye’s voice - a blend of film noir and screwball comedy.... The jauntiness of the prose doesn’t hide the fact that Ms. Faye has serious business on her mind. At bottom, The Paragon Hotel is about identity and about family - those we’re born into and those we create.” (The Wall Street Journal)

"With complex, believable characters and an intricate plot, this is a sprightly, enjoyable read." (People)

“Faye once again vividly illuminates history with her fiction....remarkably fluid fiction, framed as a love letter and based in fact.” (Booklist, starred review)

“This historical novel, which carries strong reverberations of present-day social and cultural upheavals, contains a message from a century ago that's useful to our own time: ‘We need to do better at solving things.’ A riveting multilevel thriller of race, sex, and mob violence that throbs with menace as it hums with wit.” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review)

Strong Women

Nobody Alice James is a very strong Italian/Welsh woman from Harlem. Set in the 1920 this book follows Nobody from Harlem to Portland.
When arriving in Portland Nobody is taken to the Paragon Hotel by Pullman porter Max due to an injury she revived in Harlem.

While there she meets Blossom Fountaine who is a beautiful African Americans singer. Who is also a strong female character.

I enjoy the story of these two main characters and the supporting characters are well writing too!!

Out of the pot, and into the frying pan

Last night I was listening to two experienced twitch RP'ers giving thier lengthy backstories to each other, and it was about as interesting as this book. This book is really two stories linked together in a tale about one victim's migration from East Coast organized crime to organized stupidity of racism on the West Coast. The mafia part of the story was excellent. The African American part was ok, but weaker, since the central character was a snoopy white woman who stretched the limits of reality, and who used the term "admire-to" a bit too much, in the way 60s Dr. Who or Benny Hill might bastardize the conversational language of the Old American West. Narration was flawless. The author has done better.

Audio makes this story come alive

I started reading the paper book first and had a hard time getting into it, so I went for the audio to listen to while I painted my kitchen. The story was much more engaging hearing the voice inflections and character shifts. I learned a lot about history and appreciate the author’s ability to address a sad reality for people of color STILL happening today. Thank you for this story!

Excellent Writing, Well Read, but..

January LaVoy did an awesome job reading the various voices of the characters. Lyndsay Faye is a talented writer and the story is hard to stop listening to. Loved the historical information she conveys through the setting, time period and characters. I just didn’t like the occasional extra-strong language, nor did I like the feminist slant to the story or the inclusion of the transsexual thread. The LGBTQ theme that seems to be included in every single thing these days is just not welcome. Disappointed that Faye follows this broken record in her otherwise fascinating stories.

A great read and a great listen

This story moves at the pace of a vaudeville show. It has a rhyme and a pace that is fast moving from one event to another, from then to now. A roaring 20's vibe that requires close attention to follow the plot and pick up the nuances. I did enjoy the tale. I was surprised I thought I got it and was way short of the whole of the tale. The parallels between beginnings of NYC mafia and the KKK in Oregon are instructive. The characters are charming.

Awesome narrative

I loved the story and the narrative by January was incredible. I could listen again if there weren’t so many books waiting.

5⭐️ plus

Wonderful on so many levels. If you’re a fan of historical fiction, you will appreciate a view of the 1920s in the role of racism, sexism, feminism, the mafia, and surprisingly LGBTQism and the surprise of all-white-aspiring Portland Oregon. After listening to the author’s notes, I’m wondering if I could live there now. Be sure to read to the end to see the resolution and get the full benefit of the story. I truly admire the major characters of the story and would like at least a novel it to know there final fates. I’ll be thinking about this story for a long time.

I loved from beginning to end!

I loved every part of this book. I loved the suspense of the story, I loved the racial history of Oregon, I loved the unexpected twists and turns of the plot. a great, informative read.

A Top 5 book this 55 yr old ever read!

This is not a thriller but at times it feels like it as I put off dinner or bedtime because I HAD TO find out what was going to happen. Nor is it a mystery though as layer after layer of characters are revealed, I found myself literally stunned at how little I know and how much I assume— everywhere all the time.

Unfortunately, the book remains timeless— police racism, white minimalization of the Black experience and white privilege has barely budged. The long racist history of Portland was new to me and deeply disturbing, though not surprising since it is the USA.

The power of this book for me is the relationships and complicated personalities and contexts of all the characters. I got to appreciate characters who were Black not as objects— not “victims of white racism” only— they were complex human being who happened to live in the context of brutal and unforgiving racism...

I also appreciated the insight into early 20th century Italian immigrant life and the mob’s complex web in some NY communities...

What a sweet read~ I miss the Paragon family but my life is richer for knowing them....

Performance was one of the best I’ve heard.

I loved this historical fiction. I live in Portland, so it was very interesting to hear some of the history of my city and state.
The author managed to weave in several topics of interest for the period she writes about as well as a few modern ones (some things never really go away- like bigotry).
The character Nobody- Alice- is a keen observer, giving us a full description of the other characters.
Finally, narrator January LaJoy is positively radiant in performing this story. She switches between characters effortlessly, and her voice is very pleasant.