The Third Hotel

By: Laura van den Berg

Narrated by: Bailey Carr

"[A] future cult classic." (The New York Times Book Review)

"There’s Borges and Bolaño, Kafka and Cortázar, Modiano and Murakami, and now Laura van den Berg." (The Washington Post)

An August 2018 IndieNext Selection. Named a Summer 2018 Read by The Washington Post, Vulture, Nylon, Elle, BBC, InStyle, Refinery29, Bustle, O, the Oprah Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Harper's Bazaar, Conde Nast Traveler, Southern Living, Lit Hub, and Vol. 1 Brooklyn.

In Havana, Cuba, a widow tries to come to terms with her husband’s death - and the truth about their marriage - in Laura van den Berg’s surreal, mystifying story of psychological reflection and metaphysical mystery.

Shortly after Clare arrives in Havana, Cuba, to attend the annual Festival of New Latin American Cinema, she finds her husband, Richard, standing outside a museum. He’s wearing a white linen suit she’s never seen before, and he’s supposed to be dead. Grief-stricken and baffled, Clare tails Richard, a horror film scholar, through the newly tourist-filled streets of Havana, clocking his every move. As the distinction between reality and fantasy blurs, Clare finds grounding in memories of her childhood in Florida and of her marriage to Richard, revealing her role in his death and reappearance along the way. The Third Hotel is a propulsive, brilliantly shape-shifting novel from an inventive author at the height of her narrative powers.

©2018 Laura van den Berg (P)2018 Audible, Inc.

Unusual story

I chose this book because I have spent time in Cuba. This is a very unusual story of a woman and her grief over her deceased husband.

weird story but generally enjoyable

fast enough read. the protagonist is annoying and flat, but there are some lovely commentaries and language in the novel, portraying the weird realities of families and couples. it's occasionally very hard to follow because the narrator is so weird that it feels like she's actually not a reliable narrator because of how our of touch she is with real life

the reader is breathy and quiet and I had a really hard time with her voice trailing off and speaking so softly, even when you turn up the volume.

Phantasmagorical Folktale

This phantasmagorical folktale set in Havana--that brings to mind the scariest Frida Kahlo self-portrait, call it a nightmare in unibrow--serves chiefly as aspirant for *Hell's grim Tyrant,* Death.

Last year, I read too many novels such as this one, that seem to be trafficking in nightmares (the writer's).

From this experience, I learned that sleep is way too valuable to pay for its pollution.

Horrible narration

I don't think they could have chosen a more annoying narrator for this book... the sing-songy voice totally distracts from the book... I am going to have to return it and get it on kindle.

Dreamish, Immersive and Thoughtful

I realize the term “dream-like” is very cliche. But Laura Vandenberg’s narration style seems to be one where a rich almost sensory impression of her fictional environment gradually comes upon you through a series of hyper attentive detail descriptions. Add to that a string of events which often seem to have a vague irrationality under the surface. “Dream-like” then seems appropriate. She created for me a vivid, not-quite-random dream version of Havana, threaded together by an atmosphere of grief.

Also, there’s a sort of meta-fiction level which has scenes with film critics expounding ideas about how stories work, which sort of illuminate notions the author seems to be either gravitating towards or pushing against in writing the book. Often this happens at moments where you think you know where things are going, and it can flout or recast your sense of the plot’s direction or perceived purpose. People who want hard and fixed meanings probably aren’t going to like this, but if you appreciate writers like Borges or the short stories of Stephen Millhauser, you’ll love it.