Ms. Hen reviews The Glass Hotel

The Glass Hotel

Emily St. John Mandel

First Vintage Books

2020

Ms. Hen decided to read this novel because she had read STATION ELEVEN many years ago, long before Covid, when everyone was reading it, and she was curious about other books this author had written. This novel is not speculative fiction, it's about people surrounded by a Ponzi scheme. Ms. Hen didn't know until she read the acknowledgments that this is based on Bernie Madoff's story. 

This novel is about people who surround a man named Jonathan Alkaitis, who created the scheme. Vincent is a bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a glass hotel on the shores on Vancouver Island, and her brother, Paul, works there as a maintenance worker. Someone scrawls on the wall "Why don't you eat broken glass," which shakes up the staff. Vincent starts an affair with Alkaitis, posing as his wife, and quickly gets bored with her life in the country of money. 

Vincent discovers her brother had stolen her films, and wrote soundtracks for them. An older artist, Olivia, comes into some money, and invests it all with Jonathan, and ghosts haunt Jonathan from the other side when he is away, including Olivia. He creates his counter life, or dream life. Paul becomes successful, but sees Vincent in a doorway in Scotland when she is not there.

This book is told through different characters in alternating chapters. This is a novel like a puzzle, the reader has to put the pieces together to sit how all the characters and storylines fit together. Ms. Hen thinks it's disturbing that people would scam innocent investors out of their life savings, but she knows the world is full of monsters, even when they don't look the part.

Ms. Hen likes the ghosts in this novel. She thinks it's fantastic that the evil people kept seeing ghosts of the ones the hurt, which is the way ghosts should be. Ms. Hen likes to think that ghosts are real, but she has never seen one. She might have felt one close to her.

Ms. Hen thinks this novel is upsetting, but important. It's about greed and lies and guilt, with some love and art thrown in for seasoning. Ms. Hen thinks that people should look out for situations that seem too good to be true, and we should realize that things aren't always what they seem.