Helpful Score: 2
Great read. A look into the lives of the eclectic people who work and stay at the Hotel Honolulu.
Paul Theroux has done much better than this, and I prefer his other works. This is really a series of essays about the strange and weird characters living in a Honolulu hotel where the narrator is the manager.
Loosely structured collection of tales about the characters who visit, live at or work at a backwater hotel in Oahu that is NOT on Waikiki Beach. A lot of insights into Hawaiian culture that tourists wouldn't normally pick up; a lot of weird sexual escapades.
This book is ok. I thought I was getting a real life travel and living account. After a few chapters, when I seriously thought he's GOT to be making this stuff up, I noticed it's a NOVEL. In depth look at the goings on at an old hotel. Interesting characters. I was hoping for more description of Hawaii, but maybe I didn't read far enough... Gutter language abounds.
Sounds sort of like the room I stayed in...