BOOKSHELF: Hotel du Lac by Anita Brookner

This book leaves us with an option to admire the language; and leave the plot aside.

Hotel du Lac
Anita Brookner
• Price — Rs 550
• Publication — Penguin

Not many know of it, but the inspiration of Frankenstein came to Mary Shelly while on a boat across Lake Geneva. And Mary Shelly was not the only author to have succumbed to the magical arrogance of the lake.

Many others have fallen prey to this most wonderful of sceneries. And Anita Brookner is just another in a long line of inspired authors. Yet unlike others, she has set this story on the banks of the Lake Geneva.

Hotel du Lac won the Booker Prize in 1984 establishing it in the rarified world of high literature. But we must get back to the lake, for any diversions can only ruin the sheer magic that this book commands. At times even the Booker seems like an unwanted interference. What will strike the reader most is the somber prose that cascades over the territory.

The description of the lakeside, the creation of the benevolent atmosphere in the hotel, all done in a manner that reverberates like ripples on water. Yes, it is possible to read Hotel du Lac and detach it from the plot altogether. For in this book they occupy two adjacent territories. It has been called a romantic novel and we might not want to argue upon that contention.

But Hotel du Lac leaves us with an option to admire the language; and leave the plot aside. The area that Edith Hope, the principal character, occupies, not just physically but mentally, is reflected in the silver sun and the rising mists of autumn across the lake.

The void of people and the generosity of space makes the scene appear as if it were a different world from that of our own. For once the story is as important as it is not. And here lies that worth of this book.

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