Five disparate voices inhabit Ali Smith's dreamlike, mesmerising Hotel World, set in the luxurious anonymity of the Global Hotel, in an unnamed northern English city. The disembodied yet interconnected characters include Sara, a 19-year-old chambermaid who has recently died at the hotel; her bereaved sister, Clare, who visits the scene of Sara's death; Penny, an advertising copywriter who is staying in the room opposite; Lise, the Global's depressed receptionist; and the homeless Else who begs on the street outside. Smith's ambitious prose explores all facets of language and its uses. Sara takes us through the moment of her exit from the world and beyond; in her desperate, fading grip on words and senses she gropes to impart the meaning of her death in what she terms "the lift for dishes"--then comes a flash of clarity: "That's the name for it, the name for it; that's it; dumb waiter dumb waiter dumb waiter." Blended with hers are other voices: Penny's bland journalese and Else's obsession with metaphysical poetry.
Hotel World is not an easy read: disturbing and witty by turns, with its stream-of-consciousness narrators reminiscent of Virgina Woolf's The Waves, its deceptively rambling language is underpinned by a formal construction. Exploring the "big themes" of love, death and millennial capitalism, it takes as its starting point Muriel Spark's Momento Mori ("Remember you must die") and counteracts this axiom with a resolute "Remember you must live". Ali Smith's novel is a daring, compelling, and frankly spooky read.

Taking to Saturday's Birmingham meetup

PIcked up at the meetup

I enjoyed this! Putting it into the box for the Unconvention in Colchester.

To be left on the NSS table at the Unconvention for Cinderess.

Thank you very much! Hopefully we'll meet and get to say hello over the weekend.

30.09 It was nice to finally see you and speak :-)

Haunting.

When I reached the end I went back and reread the first chapter.

The chapter with no punctuation takes a bit of perseverance but is genuinely touching and pulls together the rest of the book.

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Picked this up at the London Xmas meet yesterday - so it's returned to the West Midlands!

Having to cull my TBR pile as moving house soon ... this book is off to Leeds!

I am releasing this book to the book buffet at BCUK Unconvention 2013 in Leeds! If not picked up by another attendee it will probably end up on being wild released somewhere on the streets of Leeds on Sunday morning!

If this is your first experience with BookCrossing, thanks so much for picking up this book and coming to the BookCrossing website to find out what it's all about. Welcome to the addictive world of BookCrossing!

I look forward to hearing what you thought of this book, and of your plans for it.

Caught at the Leeds Unconvention. Looking forward to reading this! Thank you :)

I was really disappointed with this book, and must confess I found myself skipping over pages.

Being released as part of the 'First Liners' game at the Belfast bookcrossers' Christmas meetup.

Caught at BookcrossingNI Christmas party

Can't say I enjoyed this one - the characters weren't interesting for me.
Releasing at the BookcrossingNI meetup.

Caught at the meetup in Belfast this evening, may read or re-release.

Can be found on the front window shelf