The Enders Hotel: A Memoir (River Teeth Literary Nonfiction Prize) (Paperback)

by Brandon R. Schrand (Author)
Key Phrases: hotel basement, Soda Springs, Enders Hotel, Soda Creek (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal
Adult/High School—This memoir is a classic coming-of-age story in which the author casts himself as an antihero in the tradition of Holden Caulfield. Schrand's stories of life at the family-owned Enders Hotel in Soda Springs, ID, resonate with the wide-eyed enthusiasm of youth and yet are balanced with the sober vision of hindsight. This is ironic because alcoholism and drug use, and their consequences, pervade the narrative. The author evokes a unique sense of place with what is essentially a series of vignettes from his childhood. He introduces readers to a ragtag and at times sorry cast of characters searching for purpose and dignity. This common narrative thread ties strongly to his search for "manhood" and his missing father. Schrand's specificity and eye for detail transport readers to the desolate environs of the Enders Hotel. This book will appeal to anyone who has ever felt out of place or out of step with the world, especially teen males.—Jennifer Waters, Red Deer Public Library, Alberta, Canada
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From Booklist
*Starred Review* Schrand’s deeply textured memoir of life in a small Idaho town boasts a rich palette of glittering iridescent hues, somber earth tones, and delicate, evocative washes. He spent most of his youth in the hotel his recovering alcoholic grandparents had purchased in Soda Springs for $250,000 in 1975, then renovated while bartering labor for room and board until his widowed grandmother had to sell it for $85,000 in 1992. With his mother and rage-prone stepdad, also recovering alcoholics, they all toiled endlessly “in a place where the only thing that mattered was hard work.” At school Schrand finds BJ, a mix of bright spontaneity and dark undertones, and one of many beautifully limned personalities. Schrand crafts moving vignettes that reflect the changes impinging on small-town life, where “the wind on my face felt like gratitude itself.” Whether describing a room of abandoned suitcases, “a mausoleum of the forgotten people,” or how Monsanto and Mormonism define that “company town with a peculiar stripe of pity,” Schrand’s memoir sings, stirring the senses as much as the soul. --Whitney Scott

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Product Details

• Paperback: 238 pages
• Publisher: Bison Books (May 1, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0803217692
• ISBN-13: 978-0803217690
• Product Dimensions: 8.3 x 5.4 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 0.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #666,049 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A sharing of boyhood memories from an unusual place, July 20, 2008

By	Corinne H. Smith (Athol, MA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Growing up in a hotel sounds like a cool and exotic experience, doesn't it? At the very least, it must have offered the chance to meet all kinds of people. And eating all of your meals at a café counter, sitting on an upholstered and spinnable stool, would have been fun, too. Well: maybe. These are the kinds of scenes Brandon Schrand recalls when he thinks back to his childhood. He lets us in on his unique past within the pages of this intriguing memoir.

Schrand's family owned the Enders Hotel in Soda Springs, Idaho, from 1975 to 1992. A three-story brick building with more than 100 rooms, the hotel dates to 1919 and was named for William and Theodore Enders, the German immigrant brothers who built it. Coincidentally, the establishment was also an attraction for "enders" of other sorts: transients, recovering alcoholics, and individuals just plain down on their luck. Schrand's relatives -- a complex combination of personalities as a result of multi-generational divorces -- accommodated pretty much all of them, when they weren't on the move or in recovery themselves. "It seems fitting, inevitable perhaps," he writes, "that we eventually bought a hotel, a place outfitted with so many exits and entrances, and a place that seemed itself a beacon to the far-farers, to people, ultimately, like us." (p. 203) At the same time, Brandon was growing up. An only child with a vivid imagination and a clubhouse that he eventually shared with friends and classmates, Brandon spent his so-called "formative years" doing odd jobs around the building, alternatively interacting or deliberately ignoring the guests (as per his parents' orders), and exploring the natural areas around the hotel. Complete with a geyser that erupted every hour on the hour, Soda Springs was a company town, a tourist destination, and a temporary way station for many a passer-by. For Brandon, it was Home.

The novelties are what make for interesting reading here. Soda Springs. An unusual family situation. Living in and operating a hotel with a bar and a restaurant. Most of us don't come from similar situations. And yet: growing up is in itself a common experience and one that we can all relate to, no matter the location. And though we may be singularly place-oriented when we are children, it is only when we become adults and look back over the years that we realize that the individuals who surrounded us at the time made the difference, all along. As much as we loved special buildings or certain towns, it was the people who made those places remarkable for us. That can be a hard lesson to learn; harder still, to accept.

Writing such a book is a risky business, since it reveals so much of oneself and one's family. (How did Brandon remember all of these boyhood incidents???) This is the kind of memoir that prompts you to write your own. It's easy to see why it's an award winner.

4.0 out of 5 stars A Warm Place to Stay, March 19, 2009

By	Chazzbot (Enoch, Utah) - See all my reviews

The goal of this memoir is not to assign meaning to a life lived, nor to tie up the events and experiences one has had in a pretty package. Life is rough and unformed, and so are many of the stories that Schrand has to tell. What places this memoir above many others is Schrand's patient, elegiac prose for a very unique place and the wandering, often lost, people ("enders," as Schrand describes them) who entered its doors.

Schrand also captures the aimlessness of life as a teenage boy in a small Western town, and does not shy away from the consequences of his boredom. Another of Schrand's admirable traits is his brutally honest eye. He sees how people unconsciously wound each other, he sees the love behind simple words or acts of kindness, and he recognizes how the lives we lead are largely shaped by those who came before us.

Schrand's memoir combines two memorable components: the people (friends, family, strangers) he encounters, and the place (the hotel of the title) where they all came together. Schrand's love for the Enders is made clear in each descriptive passage, in the way he unlocks the hidden rooms of the hotel for the reader to enter, and the way he describes the daily tedium of maintaining it as a place in which locals and drifters alike can find some brief comfort.

The chapters of this memoir themselves serve as rooms where one may enter and stay for awhile, or just look in briefly before moving on down the hall. In its organization and careful construction, Schrand's memoir echoes the rooms, windows and, most important, the people who inhabited this time and place. By the end of this powerful book, you will not forget the Enders Hotel or the people who lived there.

4.0 out of 5 stars A Surprising Read, January 31, 2009

By	Randy Danielsen "Avid reader" (Chandler, Arizona) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I couldn't put the book down. Of course I am biased because I grew up in Soda Springs, Idaho and can relate to the stories and the people. It is well written and engaging.