Customer Reviews

The Hotel Eden

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

A story should either make you laugh or cry. Ron Carlson's stories do both. I don't know how else to describe his stories other than comparison -- he's as poignant as Andre Dubus, as funny as Lee K. Abbott and John Dufresne, as insightful as Charles Baxter and Lynne Barrett, and has an eye for detail like William Trevor or Alice Munro. Though he's not a minimalist, Carlson doesn't waste a word to sentimentality or a scene to gratuitous fluff. His stories are chiseled out of granite. A great collection.

Ron Carlson's latest collection of short stories addresses the question: What it is to be human? His stories are extraordinary, at the same time, keeping that ever so important human element that makes them accessible & enjoyable to all readers. Each story was a joy to read -making me want to continue to the next. Difficult book to put down. To be read & reread & reread. His stories are a great teacher of life. Each unique story resonates with emotion, adventure, and insight into the human experience. You won't be disappointed!

When I first ordered this book and realized it was a book of short stories, I was disappointed ...until I opened up the cover and began to read. I then started a relationship with each character in each story, found them very interesting and wanting to know more about them. Each story hypnotized me. "Oxygen" engulfed me, a totally coming out story so deep it's awesome! "Keith" was interesting, "The Prisoner of Bluestone" also a deep story about family and getting to know each other. "Down the Green River" made me cry and appreciate what I have after being divorced and starting over.

Please, don't hestitate reading this! You won't be disappointed. Great job, Ron Carlson!

If you were to tell me there is a story more perfect than "Keith," I'd say you were wrong.

Twelve solid short stories make up this collection, and although some are superior to others, they're all worth reading. I'll break it down story by story, on scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the best.

The Hotel Eden - 3. Saw the ending from the get-go, and the ride isn't all that amazing.
Keith - 5+!
The Prisoner of Bluestone - 4. Solid story.
Zanduce at Second - 4. Strange story, but it works.

The House Goes Up - 3. Didn't do much for me.
What We Wanted to Do - 5. Carlson does George Saunders and it's very good, very funny.
The Chromium Hook - 5. The gradual discovery of interconnection (a sense of community) between the characters is done fabulously. Also very funny.
A Note on the Type - 4. Another strange story that works. Carlson's good at taking extraordinary situations and making them believable.
Nightcap - 5. Maybe I'm just a sucker for baseball.
Dr. Slime - 3. Didn't do much for me. The story is about a baker, but it doesn't feel right. It reads like a writer writing in the voice of a baker; I was never able to completely believe the voice.
Down the Green River - 2. Did little for me.
Oxygen - 5. Probably the best story after Keith. Powerful stuff; the retrospective voice works well.

I found myself very entertained by Carlson's collection of stories, Hotel Eden. A lot of people insisted that I check out his work, and I'm so glad I did. What I found in Hotel Eden was a collection of stories with characters from every walk of life. They were so different, yet so real that I found it hard to believe they lived only on the page and in my mind.

Any reader of Hotel Eden will appreciate Carlson's tight and poetic writing that has the ability to snatch you into - at times - bizarre storylines, like the story Zanduce at Second, about a baseball player who has killed 11 spectators with his stinging foul shot and finds an almost blood thirsty thrill in regaining his former playing prowess.

In a collection, I would expect to find a few great stories, but in Hotel Eden, I found 12 wonderful stories filled with intriguing characters, fascinating plotlines and a mixture of humor and reality (a sometime sobering thing).

I would definitely recommend Hotel Eden to those interested in reading great literature that is ENTERTAINING.

I usually do not read short stories--never found anything to approach the experience of reading someone like Katherine Anne Porter. However, Ron Carlson has produced his own quirky "magic" with some of his stories in The Hotel Eden. Carlson looks at us and then writes stories about our behavior. So what? Most writers can do this OK. The difference for Carlson's stories may lie in his grace of how carefully he looks at us and reads between the lines of our everyday behavior. What we may get from his stories is something more funny or more sad than we ever knew. Good--honest writing with little artifice or fill.

The stories in this book are horribly fun to read. Ron Carlson has a really cool sense of humor. As a college student, it is important to read material that excites your spirit, to even out the Calculus and Accounting. You can finish a story every night, they make excellent study breaks. Go Hawks!!

All of Ron Carlson's characters have heart. His stories are funny and poignant and even if you guess where they're going, you'll still enjoy the ride.

The Hotel Eden Stories, by Ron Carlson, are written with such clarity that you feel like you are in the front seat of the pick-up in the story, Oxygen, and in the the Hotel Eden having a beer with Allison and Porter. They are rich with feeling and realism, and his writing style is magnificent.

I have read these stories aloud to friends and on the phone with my mom. I will continue to read them aloud to anyone who will listen - so far, no one has turned their head

"The Chromium Hook" and "Oxygen" are well worth the cost of the book. "The Chromium Hook" was brilliantly contrived and the most entertaining story in the book. To be honest I was about to give up on the book because the first six stories didn't really impress me. Not that they were poorly written, but because I just couldn't relate to the characters. In "Hotel Eden" a man passively accepts being tricked into leaving his girlfriend alone for the weekend with a mutual friend. Most men that I know would not tolerate this. "Keith" was about shallow high school kids. Who cares? I'm glad those mediocre stories didn't keep me from reading "The Chromium Hook," because I would have really missed something.

"Oxygen" is a real work of art. It's a deeply moving story about a nineteen year old narrator who tells in the past tense his experiences on a route delivering oxygen tanks. There is an interesting realistic contrast in this story. Most of the people he delivers to are old and dying of respiratory diseases. One such customer is old and repulsive and lonely. He forces the narrator to stay with him and listen to his stories, and he makes him eat cookies and kool aid. The narrator can't stand to be with him. Another customer has a beautiful daughter who seduces the narrator, and they begin having a regular fling. It's a situation that happens often to young people. They'd rather spend time with good-looking peers than with aging grandparents. The theme fascinated me.

"A Note on Type," "Dr. Slime," and "Down the Green River" were also good.

I would like to note one thing. In my paperback edition page 42 is rerun instead of page 47. Also the ink is sometimes of an inconsistant clarity. A print on demand book that I authored (Talk Radio) has a much higher quality production. I would think Penguin could do better than this. Their production was a disservice to Ron Carlson. If a little press like PublishAmerica can put out a perfectly produced book, than Penguin should be able to as well.