These dozen stories by a master of idiosyncrasy visit a world where wit has heft, charm has shadow, and human beings act out all the complicated nuances of love. In the title story a young man waits, thinking the Hotel Eden is a permanent domicile. In the last story an ancient lover's lane mystery is solved. As for the in-between storiesreaders, be prepared to be amused, moved, disturbed.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
A wrestler gets an erection and the crowd turns viciously against him. A young, beautiful prostitute thinks better of her latest client, a baseball player who has already killed 11 spectators with his foul shots, than she does of married men "playing the dark game that some men did, putting themselves closer and closer to the edge of their lives, until something went over." A warrior justifies a major tactical mistake (not leaving enough time for the cauldron of oil to heat) in a gung-ho bureaucratic report: "The problems of the day were not attributable to inappropriate deportment. My staff was good. It was when the Visigoths had approached close enough that we could see their cruel eyes and we could read the savage and misspelled tattoos that I realized our error."
Hotel Eden offers two hilarious stories, the boiling oil project and a complex variation on a suburban myth. A young couple necking in an isolated spot hears scratching on one side of the car, speeds off, and discovers the local psychopath's prosthetic hook on the door handle. In Ron Carlson's telling, the item belongs to an innocent mental-asylum watchman. And Mr. Howard Lugdrum is more than a little upset that everyone's sympathy is going to the kids! "I was lucky I was wearing my simple hook and the straps broke; if I'd been wearing my regular armature, those two little criminals would have dragged me to death." This is a seriously funny collection, but it is also serious. In several pieces, notably the title story, "Oxygen," and "Nightcap," the characters are led astray and into disappointment or unwanted knowledge. The college student delivering medical oxygen one summer vacation realizes, "I was young those nights, but I was getting over it." Carlson is also a poet of precarious lives, humiliation, and loss.
From Library Journal
In News of the World (Norton, 1987), Carlson wryly observed the public's fascination with the weirdness of tabloid journalism by giving us a straightforward accounts of Bigfoot, our most popular urban legend. The strongest stories in his uneven new collection have this same sort of quirky sensibility. In "The Chromium Hook," we find out the real story behind that deranged mental hospital escapee who has terrorized generations of teenage couples, and "What We Wanted to Do" is a hilarious account of medieval warfare gone haywire, told in a way that could pass as a modern-day, excuse-ridden statement to the press. "The Hotel Eden" and "Oxygen" are truly engrossing and pack an emotional wallop, but most of the other stories here have a somewhat generic feel and fail to transcend the conventional, man-has-difficulty-relating-to-women plotline. For larger fiction collections.?Christine DeZelar-Tiedman, Univ. of Idaho Lib., Moscow
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Count Carlson among the top short story writers working toda,
By Voice of Chunk (NY) - See all my reviews
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: The Hotel Eden: Stories (Hardcover)
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.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Highly recommended collection of short stories,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Hotel Eden: Stories (Hardcover)
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!
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very Entertaining! Great job!,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Hotel Eden: Stories (Hardcover)
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!
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