Hotel Honolulu: A Novel

I ordered this book almost at random, perhaps because something in the blurb attracted my attention. Then I proceeded to read the first two paragraphs and uttered "This guy indeed does know how to write!" I looked for the first time at the cover, and there it was-Paul Thereux. I did read his "Mosquito Coast" and wrote in my review that he just missed greatness. I couldn't say the same about "Hotel Honolulu", but instead of a very good book Threux wrote an eminently readable one, which is not the same. The protagonist, once a well-known literary figure, has been washed on the shores of Hawaii, where he tries to jump-start his life again at the ripe age of forty nine. He attempts to dive head first into the anti-intellectual milieu of a very mixed bag of locals. He's hired (on a whim of a semi-deranged millionaire) to manage a run-down Hotel Honolulu. With this unexpected job he acquires a local beautiful, young, and sexy wife, a semi-retired hooker mother-in-law, and eventually a precocious daughter. It seems he has found his place in this intellectually simple but actually very complex whirlpool of human interactions, but eventually realizes he's like the surfers, riding a wave. When the wave breaks on the shore and disappears, the riders finds himself once more in the shallows where nothing steers him anymore. Thereux is a word sorcerer and his sentences draw one in with magic allure, but I perceived quite early on that the books offered the author an opportunity to spin one quirky anecdote after another while the direction/plot wonders here and there like a corked bottle on the raging Hawaiian seas. In a way, it is like buffet lunch at an excellent hotel-get in, sample, enjoy, but do not overeat.

Who knew how kinky Paul Theroux could write? There are great characters in this novel very similar to Paul Theroux-types. Blasphemous, kinky, bold, & outrageous. It wouldn’t be so PC these days but made for memorable reading.

Another novel which puts one in a good mood and keeps you reading. Another success by Paul Theroux. I am currently reading 3 of his books at the same time.

Since "The Great Railway Bazaar" I have been a fan of Paul Theroux. His non-judgmental approach to human behavior is a trait I admire. The scope of his writing is amazing--"Bazaar" was about a trip through Siberia, and now with "Hotel Honolulu" we get to see inside Honolulu's fading glory.The narrator takes a job as a resident manager of the Hotel Honolulu to start a new life. He's been a successful novelist and family man in the States but has fled from a crack-up. The owner, Buddy Hamstra, from Sweetwater, Nevada, is one of the most original characters you can possibly imagine. Completely out of control, reckless, hilarious, kind and cruel, domineering and alcoholic, there is hardly an adjective that doesn't apply.The Hotel is "eighty rooms nibbled by rats," and the guests either don't mind or don't care. The narrator observes everything as he sees guests and locals come and go. He lives in a vacant guest room with his new Hawaiian wife who doesn't speak much English (and may or may not be the daughter of John Kennedy) and their precocious young daughter who plays in the lobby throughly entertained and getting quite an education from the people drifting through.Theroux's expansive prose exposes the less than perfect characters with compassion and humor.

Paul Theroux at is caustic best. The narrator is a disenchanted writer who is the manager of a vintage hotel in Waikiki with topless hula contests and bleary- eyed clientele in the Paradise Lost bar. A semi- retired hooker who is the mother of the “young, fresh” Hawaiian he marries lives on the third floor. The owner of the hotel is a self-indulgent blowhard given to sadistic tricks on his relatives who happens to be a millionaire. The cast of outrageous characters goes on with sad pinch lines at the end of each of their bizarre tales. But, somehow it all seems believable. I couldn’t stop reading about these locals who hate mainlanders who decide to stay on the “green island.” Theroux lives in Hawai’i and had a lot of fun with the pidgin that locals speak and some of their attitudes. I was sorry when it ended and I had to get back to less entertaining debacles and ridiculous circumstances.P.S. I am a big fan of Happy Isles of Oceania and Fresh Air Fiend by the same author.I am the author of Wai-nani: A Voice from Old Hawai'i

Another masterpiece from Theroux. Set in a seedy hotel in the Honolulu of a bygone era, we’re told many stories, but in the end it’s only the same story we all share.

When I went to Hawai'i I hadn't yet read this book. I got home and picked it up to read. Now that I've read it I'm glad I got to go to visit first. I have reflected on the stories Theroux tells and I am able to appreciate Honolulu in a way I probably couldn't while I was there. I recognized so many of the people Theroux described and saw myself in them as well. I had to wonder how much of this novel was really fictional; it was far too easy to imagine that these things had happened. (Especially after getting to know some of the people who do live in Honolulu.)Having grown up near a tourist destination this book give me an appreciation for those who have to deal with tourists for a living; it also gave me several insights into the human condition.I would hand this book to anyone who is planning to travel (and not just to Hawai'i).

I have thoroughly enjoyed must of Paul Theroux's novels, which often have a dark sense of menace and alienation. This book is rather different. Set around an author with writer's block, who takes up a job managing an hotel in Hawaii, this is the story of the guests, residents, staff, and owners of the hotel. It is presented in short chapters, some of which are little stories in themselves, and the themes of sex and death runs through most of it.Theroux writes so well that I found it difficult to put down, although it is hard to engage with most of the characters, and there are another themes, of wasting life, and the awful stuff that happens to people often through their own hand, which i found rather depressing at times.So for a dedicated Theroux reader, this is worth reading too - otherwise there are better Theroux novels out there including the Mosquito Coast and the Lower River

I was rather annoyed with the author when I got to about page 100 as this is not really an novel but a mass of short stories all held together by the central character the Hotel Honolulu. I was annoyed as short stories are not my favourite genre and I realised I had another 330 pages to go! Once I got over this fact however I thoroughly enjoyed the book as the mass of characters paraded in front of us are entertaining and very amusing. The narrator is a 50 something ex-writer who falls by chance into managing the hotel and stays because he marries a pretty local girl. Just about the only thing that wasn't clear was why she married him otherwise just about every piece of gossip and ever flaw of every guest is paraded before us. As a result its full of all thats good and bad in human nature and hence is full of really juicy gossip. Not brilliant literature but a really excellent holiday read - which you can dip in and out of.

Excellent light-hearted fun!

When the book arrived I realised that it was printed in Spanish. I wish I could read Spanish - but I can't. It was really a waste of my money.