Hotel World

For me the story is about connections and disconnections.  Life--a connection to the world and death--a separation from it.  A hotel, the ultimate place for disconnected people.


In the first chapter Sara is dead and the narrative is through her ghost/spirit/soul (?).  As the narrative progresses the g/s/s is disconnecting with the world.  She is losing her senses of touch (would like to have the unpleasantness of a stone in her shoe), taste (dirt), sight (birds, colors), smell (her own feet), and hearing (her own heartbeat).  And she is losing language, forgetting the names for things (toast).  Significantly, she is losing her connection with Sara.  She uses us/she/I in referring to herself and Sara.


The spirit flies about and looks at people in the narrative.  She sees Lisa in the hotel and says that she is sick but doesn't know it yet.  She introduces the reader to Elspeth/Else:


 Elspeth has become disconnected with her identity.  She is now somebody else--Else.  She has lost her language, she speaks in partial words, "(Spr sm chn?)." Her statements are on parenthesis as if she is excluded from participating in the novel.  She makes a connection with the girl across the street (Clare), speculating about her life and making up a story about her being used sexually by a family friend--a story that is really Elspeth's.  And I did enjoy the bit about Pinocchio's nose as phallic symbol.  Elspeth/Else begins to regain her speech while in the hotel--is this because she has reconnected with others?  In the hallway she offers information, it's the paint over the screws that is making them difficult to remove and her dissertation on the laws of gravity.  Her coughing has stopped as well but resumes when she is back outside.  And there is Elspeth looking at the hotel soap and wondering who wrapped it in paper (see more about that in "The Sweatshop Sublime").


Penny the journalist should be more observant but is as thick as two planks.  She makes assumptions about people based on circumstances.  Clair is obviously a hotel employee and is supposed to be removing the screws because she has a hotel uniform.  Elspeth must be somebody important because she is in the hotel and has a bohemian appearance--she is now "the woman".  It is when Elspeth is back in her environment--the streets--that Penny sees that she is a homeless person.  And, as Penny
herself jokes, the penny drops.


The shop girl in the watch store has been aware that Sara is watching her but does not make a connection with her.  Both Sara and the shop girl experience a sexual awakening and interest in each other but, as Sara points out, such a relationship would be impossible.  The shop girl makes and keeps a connection with Sara by wearing her watch and enjoying he warmth of the watchband.


Clare disconnects from her parents.  She refers to her father as "he" as he removes all traces of Sara from the house.  Her mother is "she,"  over-medicated.  Clare does refer to them as dad and mum when she is talking about past events.


It is Clare who makes the connection that Sara did not top herself.  It was a failure of the dumb waiter--non-connected cables--that caused the death.  This has given Clare some peace but she laments all that Sara could have done with her life--all the connections she could have made.


As Elspeth said, it's good if you know you are lost because then you are somewhere.  The somewhere maintains a connection--the "where."  Those who are not connected with the world and don't know it are truly lost--as that poor wretched Penny.