Average Reviews:
(More customer reviews)Alright, if you've read my previous Amazon book reviews, then you know I'm a sucker for literary novels that feature historic literary figures - "The Hours," "The Book of Salt," "The Swimming Pool Library." Add Edmund White's "Hotel de Dream: A New York Novel" to that list.
The writer Stephen Crane is dying of TB. His common-law wife Cora, the former proprietress of the Hotel de Dream, is trying everything she can to prolong the inevitable. The two have taken up residence in Sussex and journey to the Black Forest in search of a cure. Theirs is the central love story, and White renders it with an uncommonly subtle intensity.
It has been claimed by Crane scholars that he had written, at least in part, a novella of a young male prostitute called "Flowers of Asphalt," which he destroyed at the urging of fellow writer Hamlin Garland. White picks up the strands of this lost tale and runs with it. On his death bed Crane's mind wanders back to his encounter with Elliott, a painted boy, and becomes consumed with finally dictating the boys tragic story.
I'll not disclose any more of the story. I will say that this is a beautiful prose work by a genuine master of his craft. I haven't read anything by Crane in decades. However, his "Red Badge of Courage" remains vivid in my mind. Has White captured Crane's "style," his "voice"? There are so many variables that such a question becomes moot. This is after all Crane dictating from his fevered deathbed. Is the story within a story pornographic? Not at all. The sexual relationship between Elliott and his middle-aged suiter is told frankly. It is the honest depiction of one man's obsessive love, and the havoc and chaos that follow. Would Crane have ever been able to publish such a work? Probably not. However, this story is presented as his last consuming passion, and as such wasn't subject to his good or rational judgement. I found this to be a brave and exciting work of imaginative fiction. Bravo!
Click Here to see more reviews about: Hotel de Dream: A New York Novel
Click here for more information about Hotel de Dream: A New York Novel
No comments:
Post a Comment