When Atlas turns up in Boston, now a successful chef, he begs Lily to leave Ryle. Guys who work for him obviously, but also clients like Leon, a shipping executive he recruited in the hotel where Vincent worked, and his old friend Olivia, who at 75 is left without an income. Paul flees to the apartment of his half-sister Vincent. Vincent imagines being stuck working as a bartender or not becoming Alkaitis’ girlfriend. He is also in a relationship with Vincent, Paul's half sister. Jonathan Alkiaitis' Ponzi scheme is based on the crimes of Bernie Madoff. It’s a joy to pull at the threads and follow their knots and loops. Like “Station Eleven,” “The Glass Hotel” is a hash of temporal crosscutting. He also gets fired as a result of the graffiti that gets discovered five years later while working at a hotel with his half-sister, Vincent. Diary entries fancifully addressed to TV host Ellen DeGeneres serve as flashbacks to Lily’s teenage years, when she met her first love, Atlas Corrigan, a homeless boy she found squatting in a neighbor’s house. Leon Prevant, who lost his life savings investing with Alkaitis, is sent to help investigate. We The two are both haunted by longing and self-doubt, trying in vain to run away from their respective demons. Throughout the novel, characters’ lives intersect in large and small ways. Paul is a lonely student at the University of Toronto. Vincent is tough and beautiful and, in her youth, she worked as a bartender at a luxury hotel on a remote island in British Columbia. Everyone in the book is witty; no one is particularly likable. The hotel manager, Walter, places a plant in front of the graffiti to hide it from Jonathan Alkaitis, the owner of the hotel who is set to arrive that night. It is Mandel's fifth novel, and the first since winning the Arthur C. Clarke Award in 2015. The Glass Hotel is crowded with phantoms: lost mothers; wronged victims; a “ghost fleet” of empty container ships; a beyond-the-grave curse scrawled in acid. [3] Some graffiti is discovered written on a window in the lobby with an acid marker, saying, "Why don't you swallow broken glass". Over the course of the 30+ years the plot spans, the reader sees Vincent at many stages in her life. ", "A Ghost Story: PW Talks with Emily St. John Mandel", "Emily St. John Mandel's latest novel, The Glass Hotel, is a timely look at a world derailed by financial fraud", "All Book Marks reviews for The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel", "In 'The Glass Hotel,' The Disasters Are Smaller But Still Disruptive", "3 novels, 2 short story collections shortlisted for $100K Scotiabank Giller Prize", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Glass_Hotel&oldid=1019216210, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 22 April 2021, at 03:41. "[5], NPR Weekend Edition Saturday author interview, "In 'The Glass Hotel,' Emily St. John Mandel Asks: How Many Chances Do We Get? Five years later, Paul and Vincent work at a hotel on the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island in the fictional Caiette, which is based on the real hamlet Quatsino. He is often haunted by the people he defrauded. Anonymous "The Glass Hotel Characters". An editor The Glass Hotel Book Club Discussion Let’s plow on to something a little less serious … book club! After you claim a section you’ll have 24 hours to send in a draft. Alkaitis is arrested and it is revealed that his investment success is a Ponzi scheme. Johnathan Alkaitis is a wealthy investor and also the owner of the hotel in which both Vincent and Paul were working, on the northernmost tip of Vancouver. In The Glass Hotel, the forces that catapult characters from one possible life into another are the more usual ones: crime, tragedy, marriage. Leon Prevant, a shipping executive for a company called Neptune-Avramidis, sees the note from the hotel bar and is shaken to his core. I found myself thinking, 'Who are these people who show up at work every morning to perpetuate a massive crime? The graffiti would appear to be intended for Jonathan Alkaitis, a wealthy investor who owns the hotel. These notes were contributed by members of the GradeSaver community. He is also the person to whom the graffiti that gets Paul fired was intended for. Throughout the novel, we’re introduced to characters that are affected by these events or within the orbit of the two main characters—Vincent Smith, the female bartender with the strange name, and Johnathan Alkaitis, the man So interesting to think about. The hotel's general manager describes the … ISBN-13: 9780525521143 Summary From the award-winning author of Station Eleven, an exhilarating novel set at the glittering intersection of two seemingly disparate events—a massive Ponzi scheme collapse and the mysterious disappearance of a woman from a ship at sea. Vincent changes her identity and is happy working as a cook on a shipping freighter. There are wonderful moments of lyricism. In places it is disorientating, as the narrative chops between timelines and perspectives. The protagonist, Paul, is an eighteen year old drug addict who visits his thirteen year old half sister, Vincent, after the death of her mother. The Glass Hotel moves forward propulsively, its characters continually on the run… Richly satisfying… Richly satisfying… The Glass Hotel is ultimately as immersive a reading experience as its predecessor [ Station Eleven ], finding all the necessary imaginative depth within the more realistic confines of its world… The Glass Hotel is a sprawling, immersive book. "[9] Seth Mandel at The Washington Examiner agreed, "Mandel’s characters are crisply drawn, all sharp lines and living color. But taken together, their overlapping stories are gripping. The Glass Hotel A literary mystery inspired by the Madoff Ponzi scheme. One flees the country, another writes an elaborate confession. Her latest novel, The Glass Hotel, does not disappoint. He is also the person to whom the graffiti that gets Paul fired was intended for. Vincent is Paul's half-sister whom he stays with after fleeing from Toronto as a result of a death that he is responsible for at a nightclub. The structure is virtuosic, as the fragments of the story coalesce by the end of the narrative into a richly satisfying shape. On page 35, Raphael tells Walter, “Our guests in Caiette want to come to the wilderness, but they don’t want to be in the wilderness. He has a long-term heroin addiction. She gets involved romantically with Alkaitis, the hotel owner. Not affiliated with Harvard College. Question about The Glass Hotel: “One of the characters that I'm equal parts curious and not-curious about is Walter. "[7] The New Yorker said, "Mandel's gift is to weave realism out of extremity. You can help us out by revising, improving and updating Thirteen years later, Vincent mysteriously disappears from the deck of a Neptune-Avramidis Prevant is the character that gets sent to investigate the disappearance of Vincent during her time working as a cook on a freight ship. Written by people who wish to remain anonymous. The Glass Hotel is a 2020 novel by Canadian writer Emily St. John Mandel. Paul is immediately suspected and soon fired. ", March 21, 2020, Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Fiction, "The Glass Hotel: A Novel by Emily St. John Mandel, Dylan Moore", "Station Eleven Wins This Year's Arthur C. Clarke Award! His complicit staff react in different ways to their impending demise. Our pick was Emily St. John Mandel’s The Glass Hotel. When, however, one person dies as a result of the tablets that he gave out, he is forced to flee. The Glass Hotel strongly resembles its predecessor Station Eleven (2014) in mood and approach, flitting among a group of interlinked, but geographically disparate characters Five years later, both are working at a hotel, where Paul scrawls a threatening message on the mirror in one of the guest rooms. She is our bard of waking up in the wrong time line. She disappears from the ship in the midst of a storm. The Glass Hotel follows two half-siblings, Vincent and Paul, who grew up apart from each other, both physically and emotionally, in British Columbia. If you haven’t read her super-popular novel, Station Eleven, get on it! Jonathan (who is 58) meets Vincent (who is 24) at the hotel and asks her to move back to Connecticut with him and pose as his wife. Copyright © 1999 - 2021 GradeSaver LLC. Analysis and discussion of characters in Amitav Ghosh's The Glass Palace Last Reviewed on June 19, 2019, by eNotes Editorial. For instance, Annika in 1999 is the violinist Paul meets (page 8) and later Leon tells Vincent about meeting Annika briefly in 2000 or 2001 (page 79). "[8], NPR claimed, "In Vincent and Paul, Mandel has created two of the most memorable characters in recent American [sic] fiction. She is also employed at the hotel where Paul gets fired as a result of the graffiti. Her life becomes one of extreme wealth and accommodating her partner. Paul finds some success as a composer. Vincent, who is working the bar, soon enters into a relationship with Alkaitis and moves into his house in Connecticut. Vincent is one of the main characters of the novel, which both opens and closes with her death. Characters are linked in unexpected directions, within and between books. Also, Prevant was among the people who lost their life savings to the scheme directed by Alkaitis. At the book’s start, what exactly it is about or even who the major figures are is unclear. [2] It follows the aftermath of a disturbing graffiti incident at a hotel on Vancouver Island and the collapse of an international Ponzi scheme. The thing that fascinated me the most was the staff involved. He also later becomes addicted to heroin. At age 13, her mother disappears after taking a canoe out on the water in Caiette. The Glass Hotel moves forward propulsively, its characters continually on the run… Richly satisfying… Richly satisfying… The Glass Hotel is ultimately as immersive a reading experience as its predecessor [ Station Eleven ], finding all the necessary imaginative depth … The Glass Hotel Emily St. John Mandel, 2020 Knopf Doubleday 320 pp. The Glass Hotel does not appear to be a novel that believes in fate, yet its characters keep intersecting in ways that seem improbable. Vincent is a bartender at the Hotel Caiette, a five-star lodging on the northernmost tip of Vancouver Island. At a nightclub, he gives some tablets to some people he is hoping to befriend and one of them dies shortly after. Alkaitis is sentenced to 170 years in prison, where he dreams of a "counter-life" in which he made different choices. Though it deals with a disaster of a different sort, St. John Mandel continues to weave together disparate storylines and characters in a moving reflection on how She plants her flag where the ordinary and the astonishing meet, where everyday people pause to wonder how, exactly, it came to this. With a Ponzi scheme, there’s a clear villain, which is a narrative boon. Sometimes we choose to … And yet the novel’s scope and brimming vitality are also its strengths. The author has once again intertwined characters having been swept up by Jonathan Alkaitis and his investment firm or the periphery of his actions. [6], The Atlantic said, "The Glass Hotel is a jigsaw puzzle missing its box. GradeSaver, 2 August 2020 Web. But the disaster, perhaps because humanity caused it, feels crueler. will review the submission and either publish your submission or provide feedback. The Glass Hotel doesn’t offer the same reassurances. That was my starting point. He is also in a relationship with Vincent, Paul's half sister. Posted Apr 5, 2020 at 5:31 AM “The Glass Hotel” is probably the dreamiest, most ethereal novel about a Ponzi scheme that you will ever read. Johnathan Alkaitis is a wealthy investor and also the owner of the hotel in which both Vincent and Paul were working, on the northernmost tip of Vancouver. At the review aggregator website Book Marks, which assigns individual ratings to book reviews from mainstream literary critics, the novel received a cumulative "Rave" rating based on 47 reviews: six "Mixed", and the others either "Rave" or "Positive". The Glass Hotel study guide contains a biography of Emily St. John Mandel, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis. '"[4], As with Station Eleven (2014), Mandel is inspired by the "invisible world" of shipping and the "ghost fleet" of freighters off the shore of Malaysia after the global financial crisis in 2008. this section. resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel. The Glass Hotel moves forward propulsively, its characters continually on the run… Richly satisfying… Richly satisfying… The Glass Hotel is ultimately as immersive a reading experience as its predecessor [ Station Eleven ], finding all the necessary imaginative depth … Minor characters, such as Vincent’s half-brother, drift in and out. Not quite halfway through “The Glass Hotel,” a new novel by Emily St. John Mandel, a woman named Vincent takes stock of her existence. Paul is a lonely student who tries to make friends at a nightclub by giving out some tablets to people he meets there. [5], At the review aggregator website Book Marks, which assigns individual ratings to book reviews from mainstream literary critics, the novel received a cumulative "Rave" rating based on 47 reviews: six "Mixed", and the others either "Rave" or "Positive". Word Count: 172 The setting of The Glass … The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel 1. From the award-winning author of Station Eleven, an exhilarating novel set at the glittering intersection of two seemingly disparate events–a massive Ponzi scheme collapse and the mysterious disappearance of a woman from a ship at sea. We are thankful for their contributions and encourage you to make your own. Mandel said, ""I do want to be clear about this book: it's not about any real people. Read the Study Guide for The Glass Hotel…. It’s Is his only purpose in this book to... Jackie L I love your question. Her on-board boyfriend is suspected of killing her. Walter suspects Paul has written it and he fires him. 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