Quick, deft, funny, and fresh, with some of the best dialogue and the best narration since Nick Hornby's High Fidelity."" - Kirkus Reviews (Starred review) ""A slangy, tangy first novel from Britain.... What takes center stage is the driving, driven narrative voice."" - Time Magazine. A dark, humorous novel centering around a seedy backstreet hotel, racism, and nefarious goings-on. Ted Hamilton's new job as a night porter at the down-at-the-heels Eagle Hotel in Liverpool, England, propels him into a world of seedy nocturnal goings-on, peopled by bizarre characters. These range from the pompous and near-efficient Mr. Butterthwaite to bigoted old soldier Henry, via Claudia the harassed chambermaid and Alf Speed, a moving man with a weakness for uninvited naps in strange beds. But it soon becomes apparent that something sinister is lurking beneath the surface.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From Kirkus Reviews
A fleabag hotel in Liverpool provides the setting for one of the year - s most outrageously funny debuts. Night porters traditionally are used to all kinds of goings-on, but Ted Hamilton finds life at the Eagle Hotel more than he had bargained for. A quiet type given to books, he - d thought that the job would leave him plenty of peace and the leisure to thumb through his Herodotus in the wee hours of the morning. Big mistake. ``First of all,'' he discovers, ``the guests in this place are not business people. . . . They wander in from twelve o'clock onwards, more often than not pissed, falling into each other's arms, clutching at their down-below parts, ready for their lonely bit of action.'' Naturally, his is the busiest shift of the day. Add to that a supercilious manager, Mr. Devlin (``When I look at the smile of one of our grateful customers - you know the look, don't you? - I know we've met a market need''), and a psychotic porter, Harry Perkins (``Easy to see you've been sheltered from the real world of fucking war and politics''), and Ted quickly finds himself at wit's end. He concocts a scheme involving a buxom West Indian cleaning lady, two adjoining rooms, and a phony police detective that quickly effects the dismissal of both Devlin and Perkins, but Devlin's successor, Mr. Butterthwaite, is given to all manner of business strategy and work-usage forms and proves to be even more of a nightmare. On top of that, Ted begins receiving ominous letters that warn of impending race wars and threaten death to ``white traitors'' like himself. As he tries to identify his tormentor, Ted makes some interesting discoveries about his paternity, stumbles upon a white supremacy cult, witnesses the nervous breakdown of Mr. Butterthwaite, and helps set up a political-action conference at the Eagle - with more than disastrous results. Quick, deft, funny, and fresh, with some of the best dialogue and the best narration since Nick Hornby's High Fidelity. -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Liverpool 101,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Long Snake Tattoo (Frontlines) (Paperback)
How refreshing to read a book that is completely out of the ordinary.The characters are painted in living color and sound so absolutely true. Not only is this a very funny book, but also a lesson in living together with other races. It should be read more than once. My only regret: the preachy ending is not needed - the author had made his point clearly over and over again. I hope it becomes a classic.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Original, witty and insightful account of life.,
By A Customer
This review is from: The Long Snake Tattoo (Frontlines) (Paperback)
This is a fascinating novel. It is different, but impossible to put down. I am amazed that this novel is not more widely known. This is clearly a cult novel before anybody realised it. Read this book and you will be moved, entertained and you will laugh.
3.0 out of 5 stars
A distinctive voice and a compelling protaganist,
By Cara Vandy (USA) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Long Snake Tattoo (Frontlines) (Paperback)
The loopy style wore thin toward the end, but Ted's mix of dark-minded cynicism and only-a-young-guy innocence was so realistic I had to find out what happened to him. The story seemed to get away from Ted, making for a slightly disappointing ending, but the first half of the book was very sharp. A good read simply for Ted's funny and consistent narration.
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