Hotel Crystal

by Olivier Rolin

At some Parisian lost-and-found, a mysterious manuscript scribbled onto stray bits of hotel stationary and postcards and stuffed into an abandoned briefcase comes into the hands of an "editor," who claims to faithfully transcribe and assemble the random texts. On the face of it, these consist of fastidious descriptions of a series of hotel rooms in cities around the globe, but their world-weary writer, a certain "Olivier Rolin," is also involved in...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1564784924
• ISBN13: 9781564784926
• Release Date: May 2008
• Publisher: Dalkey Archive Press
• Length: 216 Pages
• Weight: 0.60 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 5.2" x 8.0"
• Grade Range: Postsecondary and higher

Customer Reviews

Reading for the fun of it

This French novel is a hoot, no doubt the author's accomplishment, but ably abetted by his translator. The result is a delightful read. There's no particular plot, as the protagonist moves about the world staying in hotel after hotel and for some reason constructing detailed descriptions of the rooms he occupies. And rather incidentally recounting the outlandish schemes and sexual encounters he involves himself in. The room descriptions are the most evocative parts of the narrative, at least for me, who has stayed in a fair number of hotels of various grades but has much less experience of sexual encounters and outlandish schemes to harken back to.

connect the dots

this is not your regular novel-- every chapter begins with an exquisitely detailed observation of the hotel room, down to every last detail, followed by musings, anecdote (usually involving a sexual conquest) in that particular room. the strength of the novel rests on the outlandish conspiracies and plots he is supposedly taking part in, and how the disparate parts of his life (melanie, his true love, is a frequent topic -- of both immense longing and trenchant rebuke) are gradually revealed, sort of like looking at magic eye 3-d puzzle long enough. i thoroughly enjoyed it, and decided to immediately re-read it after finishing it the first time to truly appreciate it. i recommend you give it a try.