“There is exquisite lightness in waking each morning with the knowledge that the worst has already happened.”
The Glass Hotel is primarily about a Ponzi scheme used to cheat people out of their money. The story follows a whole cast of characters, including the man reaping the financial benefits of scamming people. Readers experience the rise and fall of so many and see how the undue consequences of one choice effect everyone directly and indirectly.
There is a lot in The Glass Hotel that reminded me of Station Eleven. The stories are very different, but there is a decadence in the way the stories unfold. The decadence isn't necessary infused in the plot or even in the characters, but in the richness of thought mastication that comes from reading Mandel's work. So much of what you get out of The Glass Hotel comes from how much you choose to unpack and observe all of the ways her characters fall together while appearing to fall away from each other.
There are so many themes in The Glass Hotel, that summing it up feels impossible. The way Mandel shows the reader the manifestation of the many themes in each of her characters, brings an elegant juxtaposition that highlights the underlying experience of emotions, and the similarities present even when the life circumstance and status could not be any more different. I like this. I don't think anyone can do this the way Mandel can, but sometimes the amount of characters she packs into her novels brings a lack of focus to the plot.
When I finished Station Eleven, I remember thinking that I would have enjoyed the book as a whole more, if the focus would have been on one or two characters instead of a whole bunch. I find myself thinking the same thing upon finishing The Glass Hotel.
⭐⭐⭐/5 stars
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