The Glass Hotel Nacional

Hi, friends. Welcome back for another book review! This week, I am reviewing The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel. For this novel’s cocktail, I decided to stick with the drink puns and make The Glass Hotel Nacional or, more commonly, a Hotel Nacional.

Hotel Nacional Recipe

0.75oz White Rum

0.75oz Anejo Rum

0.5oz Apricot Brandy

2.25oz Pineapple Juice

0.5oz Lime Juice

1 dash Ghost Pepper Hot Sauce*

0.75oz Simple Syrup**

*Hot sauce is optional. **Simple syrup is optional.

In a cocktail shaker half-filled with ice, add all ingredients and shake for 10 seconds. Next, strain into a nick and nora glass. To finish it off, add a lime wheel garnish. The simple syrup is an optional ingredient that can be added if the hot sauce is too much for you. Personally, I preferred the cocktail without simple syrup because it’s already quite sweet, but go for it if you want a little more sweet with your heat.

I chose to make The Glass Hotel Nacional cocktail because I wanted to make another pun with the title of the book. A few drinks were mentioned throughout the book, since Vincent herself was a bartender; however, none of them seemed interesting enough. AKA a Cosmo and a Manhattan. So, I chose a Hotel Nacional for a more interesting and punny cocktail. To go beyond the pun and connect the drink to the novel, I added ghost pepper hot sauce. Ghosts and hauntings are the dominant motifs throughout the novel, so I thought adding something ghosty would be perfect! The hot sauce also adds an extra tang to the drink, and I promise it doesn’t taste gross.

Synopsis

Loosely based on the fall of Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, The Glass Hotel is an evocative novel about greed and guilt. Told from numerous points of view over multiple decades, the novel describes the lives of the people involved in a devastating Ponzi scheme. But before that happens, on one disturbing evening at the Hotel Caiette, the words “why don’t you swallow broken glass?” are graffitied on the window. Vincent, the bartender, meets Jonathan Alkaitis moments after this happens, and from there her life changes. She is thrust into “the kingdom of money” and a Ponzi scheme, until the walls come down and Vincent disappears into the night. Through the Ponzi scheme that affects them all, Mandel tells a fascinating tale of people and the ghosts, both literal and figurative, that haunt them.

Review

“It is possible to leave so much out of any given story.”

This quote from The Glass Hotel, pretty well sums up how I feel about it. This is because Mandel’s story left me wanting more. Specifically, more character development. There were a lot of characters in this short novel, and it was hard connecting to any of them. Because we’re introduced to so many people, we only get glimpses of their lives. So, it felt like Mandel really was leaving so much out of the story. I wanted to know more about each character and understand their thoughts, actions, and desires. But, I felt we only scratched the surface. While it was interesting to see what happened in their lives before and after the Ponzi scheme collapsed, I didn’t care about them enough to be invested. However, I think this was Mandel’s goal, since her novel was, at it’s core, about people and how they “move through this world so lightly.”

Where I thought the novel really shined, was in Alkaitis’ chapters. To me, these chapters showed Mandel’s command of language and her writing prowess. Labelled “The Counterlife,” these chapters delve into Alkaitis’ time in prison, and his deteriorating mind that dreams up an alternate life. The way Mandel describes Alkaitis’ tendency to switch between realities was dream-like and gave me strong Vonnegut vibes. This idea of switching realities or dreaming of an alternate life plays a big role throughout the novel, as well.

The theme of creating or wishing for an alternative life encompassed the novel, and added extra interest for me. Though Mandel connected all her characters in various ways, the connection of them all dreaming of different versions of themselves spoke on a deeper level. The alternate lives theme added an extra layer to the novel that I truly enjoyed because it gave a bit of insight into the minds of the characters. The other theme that gave the book an extra edge was focused on the guilty conscience. While the alternate lives are one way these flawed characters cope with their decisions, they also see the ghosts of the people they’ve wronged. The symbolism of the ghosts and the varying degrees of guilt add some more depth to the novel. Furthermore, the way Mandel weaves her narrative through these themes is masterful and truly enhances the story.

My biggest downsides of the novel are the consistent jumping in time, the lack of character development, and the coincidences. However, I am admittedly not the biggest fan of narratives that jump around between more than two time periods, specifically within chapters because it’s confusing, so take that judgement upon yourself. I also love a novel that gets me so attached to a character that I have an emotional response, and, though I think it was intentional, I didn’t get attached to any of the characters in this novel. Finally, there were a few areas that felt forced. Namely, coincidences that forced an unnecessary further connection between characters and foreshadowing that felt obvious and pushy. All in all, despite these downsides, I enjoyed the novel. The Vonnegut-esque writing style, the theme of alternate lives, and the symbolic ghosts really heightened it for me.

So overall, I liked this book. I don’t know if it’s one of the best books I’ve ever read, but it was well-written and interesting. Please let me know if you decide to read it and what you think of it if you do. And, if you don’t, I still recommend you try out The Glass Hotel Nacional the next time you want a cocktail.

My Rating:

Thanks for reading, and if you haven’t yet read my previous review, My Dark and Stormy Vanessa, click to read it now!

Teghann

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