is mental illness contagious?

Anita Brookner "Hotel du Lac" (Penguin)





"Hotel Du Lac" is primarily a character study… not just of this story’s cast, but of the narrator herself.

Visualize a small hotel located in a remote but picturesque village on Lake Geneva, Switzerland. One that is quiet even during the prime vacation season. Hotel du Lac maintains a reserved, quaint, yet formal atmosphere. Imagine traveling alone to such a place to escape a disaster you recently created at home. Here, you find yourself to be one a half-dozen guests left on the premises following the summer season. These simple circumstances provide the basis for Brookner’s story, and to make the minimal plot more interesting, she provides a narrator who is a well-known author of romantic fiction writing under a pen name. Her true identity is kept a well-preserved secret.

Anita Brookner’s writing style is captivating and the plot is intriguing. In the story, the narrator is compared to Virginia Wolfe, and Anita Brookner truly does have a similar way of story-telling. She is very good at drawing out details in a way that paints a complete picture. But there are several negative factors that detracted from "Hotel du Lac" being a perfect novel.

The story takes place in a vacuum of time. Based on some trivial details like descriptions of the clothing and the fact that television has been invented, it appears to take place in the 1950s… though the way it is presented makes it more like a story from the Victorian Era. The characters exhibit strangely unrealistic formal behavior and extremely rigid manners, creating an aura of surreal existence.

Also, the entire story is based on the narrator’s observations and her analysis of the other guests at the hotel. This presents a problem for the reader because the novelist is shy, introverted, non-committal, indecisive, and according to the other guests, plain and mousy. She has no social skills. She quickly draws conclusions about the other guests and shares her thoughts with the reader. As the story progresses, she admits that writers are either known for being remarkably wise, or remarkably naïve- with no real personal experience. And it becomes apparent that the narrator’s judgement of people is jaundiced by her own lack of personal experience and lack of mature wisdom.

Personally, I was tired of the narrator’s critical assessments and harsh judgement of the other guests. I became bored and would gladly have abandoned her for the company of those she shunned. But Anita Brookner had other plans. The reader is stuck with this drab and boring woman right to the bitter end.

The conclusion is both anti-climactic and annoying because this incognito author really believes life is like the romance novels she pens. Moreover, right up to the final scene she is so tentative and wary she cannot assert herself.

Anita Brookner illustrates exceptional character development. It’s just too bad the character was not more likable.