Women's Hotel
A gently humorous episodic work ... While Lavery’s witty, at times flippant tone encourages such a casual approach, reading each chapter as its own character sketch could undermine the subtle connections underlying even the lightest parts of this debut ... [A] little jewel of a novel.
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The ensuing vignettes set within the walls of the Biedermeier feel at times like an elaborate social experiment, at others like a piece of performance art ... The gimmick was not off-putting to this reader...but in a time when allegory lurks behind every plot twist, I was braced for a heavy-handed message ... A book written because it was exactly what the author wanted to read. There is a delicious, low-key madness to this project, but Women’s Hotel is undertaken with such gusto — and, frequently, such skill — that the reader has no choice but to surrender ... The prose sometimes becomes a touch labored, the droll omniscient narrator too knowing ... What the arch comedy-of-manners format sacrifices in terms of character depth, Lavery compensates for with affection.
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A prime example of mastery of a craft; readers will want to devour it in a single sitting.
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