In a Hotel GardenIn a Hotel Garden is a provocative work by the English novelist once described by Sir Frank Kermode as "an admirable and rare example of the writer-critic." It is a captivating novella, written almost entirely in dialogue. In a Hotel Garden unfolds character and meaning with a lovely, meditative tension. The narrator Ben relates to his friends his enthralling encounter with a Jewish woman in the Dolomite Alps. The tale of her compulsive visit to a hotel garden in Siena--where her grandmother fell in love with a man soon to be a victim of the Holocaust--illuminates Ben's half-lived life, and raises the question of how we can ever come to terms with the destruction of the European Jews in our century. The Independent in England (where this novel first appeared) said, "Its [the novel's] enigmas are those of life itself, and Josipovici sets them before us with clarity, tact and compassion." |
Contents
The Postcard | 9 |
Fish Pie | 19 |
Absalom | 30 |
The Book | 44 |
Things About Her | 62 |
The Upper Meadows | 69 |
Floating | 77 |
In the Garden | 86 |
Lots of People | 117 |
Edmund Spencer | 129 |
Like That Mountain | 139 |
An End in Itself | 146 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Absalom ahead Anyway Ben says Bess cappuccino chair climb coffee common cold Constantinople course dolomite Edmund Spencer empty everything father says feel awful felt finished Francesca says GABRIEL JOSIPOVICI girl glass glowworm Goodnight grandmother grass hair happened hill hotel garden Istanbul Italy Jews kitchen in Putney knew Lambeth Bridge laughed Lily lunch meadows mean mint tea morning mother says mountains never Oh yes path Perhaps plate pushed Rick asks Rick says Rick stops Robert asks rock rucksack Sand Sandra says to Francesca seemed sense side Siena silent silly sorry spoon St Valentine standing stay stood suppose sure talking tea-bag tell terrace thanks There's things thought tired told trees Trieste turned Uhuh understand valley waited waiter waitress walk watching What's woman