Finbar's Hotel [Paperback]

Dermot Bolger (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 8, 1999

The hotel has stood on Dublin's quays since the 1920s, but its glory days are over. Most of the guests and staff we meet are escaping from something. Their stories are told in different chapters by seven Irish writers, including Roddy Doyle, Anne Enright and Colm Toibin.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

It calls itself a novel, but Finbar's Hotel is really more a collection of related short stories by novelists. Irish writer Dermot Bolger came up with the idea to invite six of his literary colleagues to collaborate on a tale about a decrepit Dublin Hotel on the eve of its demolition. In its prime, Finbar's was a glorious place; now, however, it's the haunt of prostitutes and thieves. A new owner plans to pull it down, but before he does, the seven authors (Bolger, Anne Enright, Joseph O'Connor, Roddy Doyle, Jennifer Johnston, Hugo Hamilton, and Colm Tóibín) imagine for it one last night. In "Benny Does Dublin" we meet Ben Winters, a fortysomething husband and father on the lam from his loving family for a single night. "He'd never been in a hotel room before. He wanted to see what staying in one was like. He was curious. All of these were right, honest answers. But why alone? Why so close to home?" "White Lies" introduces Rose and Ivy, two sisters united by love, divided by a painful secret. In "The Test" Maureen Connolly comes to Finbar's to hide from a broken heart and ends up mending it instead.

The serial novel has been tried before; what provides Finbar's Hotel with its twist is that none of the stories are signed. Bolger leaves it up to his readers to guess who's who. Those familiar with the work of these Irish novelists will enjoy the puzzle; others will still have these seven stories of love, despair, and redemption to relish. --Alix Wilber --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

The soon-to-be-demolished Dublin semi-landmark, the shabby Finbar's Hotel, is booked solid with seven of Ireland's most talented writers, each of whom tells a chapter of this ingeniously imagined novel. Readers familiar with the literary styles of Roddy Doyle, Colm Toibin, Jennifer Johnson, Hugo Hamilton, Joseph O'Connor, Anne Enright or Dermot Bolger will need to draw on their expertise to discern who wrote which episode, since no direct attribution is provided. Bolger (editor of The Vintage Book of Contemporary Irish Fiction) has masterminded this robust puzzle, and the hotel's very Irish atmosphere blooms with seven stories of nostalgia, humor and melancholy. There's a shaggy dog tale about a kidnapped cat in Room 103 and a hard-drinking Dublin man celebrating a mid-life crisis in 101 just across the hall from the already tense reunion of two sisters in 102. In 104 the night manager's reliving the hotel's shady history while confronting a guest who's checked in under an assumed name; and in 107 a paranoid art thief is worrying about how the woman next door might blow his hand off of a hot Rembrandt, while she in turn reminisces about her first love. One of the chief pleasures of this quirky book is encountering these characters from different perspectives as they intrude briefly into each other's stories. At its strongest points, the writers summon a deep sense of place, both historical and emotional. Not a conventional novel, clearly, yet the interlinked stories tenders more cumulative harmony than a conventional anthology; the heartening, garrulous Finbar's Hotel is a captivating place to check into.
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 288 pages
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan (January 8, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330370073
• ISBN-13: 978-0330370073
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #619,396 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars AN EASY AND FUN READ, March 8, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Finbar's Hotel: A Novel (Paperback)

I picked this book up as an American who only knew Roddy Doyle's work. Now I want to read all the other authors because they all are amazing writers. The strength of the writing keeps you interested and quessing who the author is of each short chapter. The characters all weave together as they spend one evening in the hotel. It is fun to look back and see the characters from different points of view in each chapter. This book has a great concept which makes it more fun to read than similiar novels. It is worth a read.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An entertaining and complex book; excellent., December 14, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: Finbar's Hotel: A Novel (Paperback)

Seven inter-linked short stories, set in the same fictitious hotel on the quays in Dublin. The stories range from the out-right funny to the somewhat disturbing. The author of each story is not identified, but it is left for the reader to guess (I think I've identified three out of the seven).

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A Concept That Doesn't Quite Make It, July 3, 2000

By 

Elliott Campbell - See all my reviews

This review is from: Finbar's Hotel: A Novel (Paperback)

After having heard a lot about this book, and read a number of reviews, I read this with much anticipation. I was sadly let down. While there is no denying the qualities of all the writers showcased, that is not to say that we see their best work here.

While the linkages between the various stories are cleverly contrived, the writing is uneven. I found "Room 101 - Benny Does Dublin" far and away the best of the stories.

That is not to say that this is a bad book, just that Bolger as editor hasn't quite pulled the concept off with this effort. Nevertheless, worth a look.