Hotel- Arthur Hailey

What Arthur Hailey’s ‘Hotel’ achieves is far beyond its gripping plot and a hooked reader. It reminds me of a time (vicariously, of course) when readers were treated with rich prose, and I of course grasp in wonder at the sheer volubility of Mr. Hailey.

Maybe I cannot possibly emulate him in his writing style, but it succeeds inadvertently in making me like ‘Word Power Made Easy’ by Norman Lewis more.

I have a love-hate relationship with that book. At one hand, it of course helps me impress you (I hope so!!) with a smattering of good words sprayed unevenly through the paragraphs in my otherwise drab writing; on the other I feel the futility of going through certain words. I must say I am a lazy sort of a person. I won’t exercise, if I certainly know that no amount of sweating and pouting will ever help me get a shapely, barrel-chested body. I have, for long, felt that, certain words in ‘Word Power…’ are now defunct, they are no longer used by general literate public, so I had been slight disinclined to go through them.

Reading ‘Hotel’ I came to a conclusion that both these authors belonged to almost similar period, as a result whatever words I have been slogging through so far on a treacherous path down ‘Word Power…’ frequently cropped up in ‘Hotel’. So I felt, almost giddily happy, knowing their meanings beforehand.

Not wanting to bore you with my conjectures and tales of personal sacrifice and happy endings, I must say that ‘Hotel’ was a fun read. Initially, I was a wee bit apprehensive, that how could life in a hotel stir the slightest bit of enthusiasm in the reader.

I am happy to say that, not only was my curiosity pricked, I found myself wanting not to stop reading till the end. I completed the last 200 pages in a single sit.

The plot revolves around a hotel (of course!!) named St Gregory inNew Orleanswhich is going through a financial downturn and the protagonist Peter McDermott who is the Assistant General Manager of the hotel.

Most of the employees are corrupt to the nail, an orgy goes wrong, a professional thief is one of the guests, plus the policy of the hotel not to admit the colored people, which can result in a huge rollback of a large Dentist Convention, and a tragic hit-and-run case, as backdrop, in which a mother and child were killed.

St Gregory finds itself wrapped in all of that and more- in a span of just three to four days. Though of course, it is not as dramatic as proclaimed on its back cover, you may find the book to be a smooth sailing. And in no time indeed, you would be drawn in.

‘Compulsively Readable’, if I were to imitate Daily Express………