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Zénith-Hôtel
"Je suis une pute de rue. Pas une call-girl ou quelque chose comme ça ; non, une vraie pute de trottoir, à talons hauts et cigarettes mentholées". Elle est directe, Nanou, pas le genre à faire des manières, non, pas le genre à se voiler la face, à se faire des illusions sur sa vie ou sur celle de ses clients. Elle est juste là pour donner un peu d'amour, et eux sont là pour en recevoir. Dominique, Emmanuel, Victor, Luc, Jipé ou Robert, ils ne demandent que ça, un peu de tendresse, histoire de se fuir un instant, histoire de vivre un peu. Une galerie de portraits attachants, sincères, de petites gens aux prises avec un monde trop grand pour eux. Et elle est belle jusque dans ses faiblesses, cette humanité-là.
128 pages, Paperback
First published March 24, 2012
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 52 reviews
May 18, 2019
“Yağmur yağdığı zaman asfaltın aldığı rengi severim. Kaldırımlar paspasla silinmiş gibi parlar. Şu çamur birikintileri, kirli çukurlar da olmasa, insan hakikaten kalabalığın olduğu o yerin, benim çalıştığım ve benim beklediğim o yerin, taze bir nefes aldığına inanabilir. Sanki orada ilk yürüyenler bizlermişiz gibi. Şehir kâşifleri olarak orada çakıyla ismimizi kazıyabiliriz. Bu yere düşerseniz sizi yaralamaz. Kadife bir koltuk gibi kayar.
Oraya izmaritlerimi atarım. Onu kirletirim. İzmaritin yanan ucu yere değdiğinde tatlı bir ses duyulur. Pışt. Yapraklar ıslanır, izmaritin ucu söner; artık kırmızı değil siyahtır, külle suyun bir karışımı, tıpkı plastik bardağın dibi gibi.”(s.58)
Oraya izmaritlerimi atarım. Onu kirletirim. İzmaritin yanan ucu yere değdiğinde tatlı bir ses duyulur. Pışt. Yapraklar ıslanır, izmaritin ucu söner; artık kırmızı değil siyahtır, külle suyun bir karışımı, tıpkı plastik bardağın dibi gibi.”(s.58)
April 13, 2022
Bueno comença una nova obsessió que es titula Oscar Coop-Phane
January 23, 2014
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A review copy was provided by Arcadia Books in return for an honest review
As a reader, when I see that a novel is based around prostitution I expect a harrowing story full of abuse and neglect. Zenith hotel is about as far from this description as you can get. It's a gritty and moving account of a day in the life of Nanou, a street prostitute. not a call girl or anything like that. Just a common streetwalker with high heels and menthol cigarettes.
She awakes everyday to the after-taste of other people's filth in her run down hotel room.
As she says, there will be no armchair psychology here. All we get is her day, plain and simple. This one day is told through her various clients. Each has there own story to tell and each become part of Nanou's story when they choose to pay her a visit. Each seem to be lacking something their lives. Mostly respect and control. This why they seek her out. She doesn't mind the fact the probably despise her. It makes them feel more civilised.. She gives them nothing but the reflection of their own misery.
In her free time Nanou writes. She doesn't really know why she does this. She refuses to see it as any type of therapy. It's just a way to keep her hands occupied. What she really seems to be doing is releasing a feeling of loathing. It's easier to hate.
What is really fascinating is that although Nanou doesn't like her life, she doesn't want anyone elses either. She finds their mundane every day jobs just as sickening as her own. She will label herself a prostitute for all eternity.
Zenith Hotel is pure poetry. It's a one sitting read that manages to fit more emotion into 105 pages than most novels do in 500 pages.
A review copy was provided by Arcadia Books in return for an honest review
As a reader, when I see that a novel is based around prostitution I expect a harrowing story full of abuse and neglect. Zenith hotel is about as far from this description as you can get. It's a gritty and moving account of a day in the life of Nanou, a street prostitute. not a call girl or anything like that. Just a common streetwalker with high heels and menthol cigarettes.
She awakes everyday to the after-taste of other people's filth in her run down hotel room.
As she says, there will be no armchair psychology here. All we get is her day, plain and simple. This one day is told through her various clients. Each has there own story to tell and each become part of Nanou's story when they choose to pay her a visit. Each seem to be lacking something their lives. Mostly respect and control. This why they seek her out. She doesn't mind the fact the probably despise her. It makes them feel more civilised.. She gives them nothing but the reflection of their own misery.
In her free time Nanou writes. She doesn't really know why she does this. She refuses to see it as any type of therapy. It's just a way to keep her hands occupied. What she really seems to be doing is releasing a feeling of loathing. It's easier to hate.
What is really fascinating is that although Nanou doesn't like her life, she doesn't want anyone elses either. She finds their mundane every day jobs just as sickening as her own. She will label herself a prostitute for all eternity.
Zenith Hotel is pure poetry. It's a one sitting read that manages to fit more emotion into 105 pages than most novels do in 500 pages.
February 20, 2014
This little book (just under 100 pages) certainly packs a punch and what it lacks in size it makes up for in content. The writing is brutally honest and raw – there is no sugar coating or flowery words here. We see a snapshot of Nanou’s day, from her time spent in her squalid rented room to when she is out walking the street of Paris; instead of the familiar tourist destination that we know, Nanou describes the seedy and unglamorous side to the city. We know of the mundane details and routine of her daily life, for example, the local café owner Jeannot who thinks she now prefers to go to a competitor simply because she no longer goes to him for her morning caffeine hit. In truth she is also desperate for a cigarette but can no longer smoke in his café so has to get her coffee elsewhere. We are then with her again at night when she finally crawls into her bed, alone with her thoughts. She tells of her self loathing and of how much she dislikes her life but wouldn’t want to live anyone else’s.
Much of the narration is by Nanou’s clients, each one telling their own story of their often sad and lonely lives. At the end of their story, there is just a glimpse of their interaction with Nanou. Again, the writing is pure and minimalist and with just a few short pages the characters are bought to life.
In all honesty this is probably not a book that would have come to my attention nor one that I would have sought out but it was an excellent read and I am so glad that Arcadia sent it to me. I do sometimes find that translated text can feel disjointed and ‘clunky’ but this one reads perfectly - excellent work by the translator, Ros Schwartz.
Much of the narration is by Nanou’s clients, each one telling their own story of their often sad and lonely lives. At the end of their story, there is just a glimpse of their interaction with Nanou. Again, the writing is pure and minimalist and with just a few short pages the characters are bought to life.
In all honesty this is probably not a book that would have come to my attention nor one that I would have sought out but it was an excellent read and I am so glad that Arcadia sent it to me. I do sometimes find that translated text can feel disjointed and ‘clunky’ but this one reads perfectly - excellent work by the translator, Ros Schwartz.
February 20, 2014
Zenith Hotel is hard to define, it's not a novel in the traditional sense, it's not a novella, nor is it a short story. It's a glimpse into a life. Set in Paris and featuring prostitue Nanou and some of her clients; this is not the exotic and glamorous Paris that we usually read about. This is the dark, the seedy, the dangerous. Nanou pulls no punches, nor does she ask for or expect sympathy. She does not try to hide what she is. She is a street-whore, plain and simple. Her daily life is described in explicit details, almost emotionless at times, with no glossing over the dirt, the smells, the squalor.
And Nanou's clients; fascinating in their own mundane way. Men who are lonely, sad, maybe mad? Nanou performs a service, she is brutally honest about it. In order to convince anyone else that there is more to these encounters than just sex, Nanou would first have to fool herself. Nanou is no fool.
A tiny book of just under 100 pages, please find yourself a quiet spot and savour this in one sitting. It is an incredible piece of writing, cleverly constructed with characters and settings that are startling in their descriptions.
And Nanou's clients; fascinating in their own mundane way. Men who are lonely, sad, maybe mad? Nanou performs a service, she is brutally honest about it. In order to convince anyone else that there is more to these encounters than just sex, Nanou would first have to fool herself. Nanou is no fool.
A tiny book of just under 100 pages, please find yourself a quiet spot and savour this in one sitting. It is an incredible piece of writing, cleverly constructed with characters and settings that are startling in their descriptions.
March 28, 2019
fahişeden çok müşterilerin hikayeleri dinlemeye değerdi...
February 2, 2015
‘When I wake up my teeth feel furry. There’s a foul taste in my mouth – a nasty sort of animal taste.’ – For Nanou, this is how each day begins. Nanou is a Parisian streetwalker ‘Not a call girl or anything. No, a real street whore, with stiletto heels and menthol cigarettes.’
In Zenith Hotel Oscar Coop-Phane details the not so glamorous life lived by Nanou. The book takes the form of a one day diary, interwoven with short portraits of the men who seek solace in the withered arms of Nanou. The book is original and incredibly moving, creating a world of solitude and sadness encompassed in the actions of just one day.
Nanou’s story is different to how you might expect. It is not a sob story dreamt up by Coop-Phane to make a reader feel better about their own sad existence – no, it is just a day. ‘I don’t intend to go into detail and tell you about my childhood, my love life and all my woes. I’m not going to tell you how I ended up like this’ say Nanou, she is clear that in knowing her past ‘you’d get too much of a kick out of it’, and she would not give you the satisfaction. Instead, all Nanou tells us is her day, so, – ‘If you were expecting me to talk about rape, being abandoned, HIV and heroin, you can fuck off, pervert’ – if you are looking for a misery maker this probably isn’t the book for you.
So why does Nanou write, if not to tell of her woes and mistakes in life? She doesn’t complain, and doesn’t even seem to see the worth or the point in her own writing. ‘I don’t know why I write. It churns me up, it soils me from the inside. To pass the time perhaps. That’s it. I write like some people do crosswords, it keeps me busy. I think about words, style and shape of the letters. I feel as if I am doing something without getting up off my arse.’
The book is structured into short chapters each detailing background of each Nanou’s clients – this is the only background information we are given, as though the messed up lives of her clients say more about her life than her own past – each chapter ends with a short interaction between Nanou and her client. Through each entry Coop-Phane digs into the very heart and soul of Nanou’s clients, voicing their innermost thoughts, desires and anxieties, while detailing Nanou’s complete lack of interest. These chapters come between passages written by Nanou herself, short ramblings scratched from the street corner, recording her day’s activities and musings.
Nanou’s life is routine, living hand to mouth with only but the smallest of pleasures to call her very own. ‘I drink my coffee all alone in my room. Smoking my fags. To cheer myself up, I tell myself I’m saving money.’ The reality is more depressing, it is not that Nanou cannot afford to drink her coffee out, but that she gave up socialising when the smoking ban was implemented, the pleasure of a combined nicotine and caffeine hit too great to spare for a chat with friends.
1024px-Rotlichviertel_Frankfurt_MainHer living quarters are dismal, the shared bathroom having fallen into the bleakest state of disrepair, Nanou resorts to borrowing the bathroom of another friend, where her morning wash routine is clinical, a mere formality rather than something to be enjoyed: ‘I wash with a mini soap. I like feeling the roughness of my skin, the way it goes taut and chapped after washing. Shower gel is too gentle. It leaves your skin slightly greasy, like when you oil it. I prefer it when my skin’s dry. I feel cleansed – disinfected.’
After leaving the discomfort of her living quarters for a day on the street Nanou meets an extraordinary circus of men. Among them Dominic, a young man who, having been convinced of his family’s desire to murder him, beat them to it and earned himself life in an institution, and Emmanuel a dreary school worker, who has no friends and spends each Saturday when his wife is away sneakily masturbating into their sofa.
Of course Nanou does not really notice these men. She is not really there when she sees them, making small talk, being kind and giving them what they want is all part of the service after all. It is just as much a part of prostitution as the selling of her body itself. These men use her as escape, as a method of running away from the harsh realities of life, which she herself has come to accept. The reality is that these men do not even come close to being with Nanou when they pay for her services: ‘I can tell you that when they screw me, when they get all horny jiggling about on top of my poor inert body, those sad suckers are well and truly alone.
640px-Prostitute_tj
Her work day is rhythmic, relentless and monotonous ‘like a factory worker in a production line. The same action relentlessly for years. No hope. A little factory worker of the flesh’. She gets no pleasure from the lifestyle, other than the cigarettes and coffee bought with her wages. As the day progresses Nanou’s thoughts become bleaker and bleaker, as though she has an intrinsic hatred of everything she stands for. She is not self-pitying, but self-loathing, considering herself to be of no worth other than a temporary recipient of other men’s primal desires: ‘I feel hollow – as commonplace as a chamberpot that you plonk down beside the bed.’
The day drags on, and the money comes easily, ‘but at what cost?’ she asks herself. She works the street all day, until finally, after her sixth client and a day spent absorbing the filth of the city, it is time to go home. ‘At last’ she thinks, ‘I can go to bed, turn on the television and light up another fag.’
Nanou is a streetwalker in Paris. Her heart has taken on the colour of the pavement. And when she falls asleep she knows ‘Tomorrow is another day.’
Taken at face value Zenith Hotel is a striking representation of the depressing life lead by a Parisian prostitute, but it is also deeply poetic, insightful, and beautiful in a way which speaks mountains about the work of Coop-Phane. Nanou is the picture of a life lost to the grime of the Paris streets, her ‘soul sweats the filth of the city’, and her words speak volumes.
Originally posted on Jade the Obscure
In Zenith Hotel Oscar Coop-Phane details the not so glamorous life lived by Nanou. The book takes the form of a one day diary, interwoven with short portraits of the men who seek solace in the withered arms of Nanou. The book is original and incredibly moving, creating a world of solitude and sadness encompassed in the actions of just one day.
Nanou’s story is different to how you might expect. It is not a sob story dreamt up by Coop-Phane to make a reader feel better about their own sad existence – no, it is just a day. ‘I don’t intend to go into detail and tell you about my childhood, my love life and all my woes. I’m not going to tell you how I ended up like this’ say Nanou, she is clear that in knowing her past ‘you’d get too much of a kick out of it’, and she would not give you the satisfaction. Instead, all Nanou tells us is her day, so, – ‘If you were expecting me to talk about rape, being abandoned, HIV and heroin, you can fuck off, pervert’ – if you are looking for a misery maker this probably isn’t the book for you.
So why does Nanou write, if not to tell of her woes and mistakes in life? She doesn’t complain, and doesn’t even seem to see the worth or the point in her own writing. ‘I don’t know why I write. It churns me up, it soils me from the inside. To pass the time perhaps. That’s it. I write like some people do crosswords, it keeps me busy. I think about words, style and shape of the letters. I feel as if I am doing something without getting up off my arse.’
The book is structured into short chapters each detailing background of each Nanou’s clients – this is the only background information we are given, as though the messed up lives of her clients say more about her life than her own past – each chapter ends with a short interaction between Nanou and her client. Through each entry Coop-Phane digs into the very heart and soul of Nanou’s clients, voicing their innermost thoughts, desires and anxieties, while detailing Nanou’s complete lack of interest. These chapters come between passages written by Nanou herself, short ramblings scratched from the street corner, recording her day’s activities and musings.
Nanou’s life is routine, living hand to mouth with only but the smallest of pleasures to call her very own. ‘I drink my coffee all alone in my room. Smoking my fags. To cheer myself up, I tell myself I’m saving money.’ The reality is more depressing, it is not that Nanou cannot afford to drink her coffee out, but that she gave up socialising when the smoking ban was implemented, the pleasure of a combined nicotine and caffeine hit too great to spare for a chat with friends.
1024px-Rotlichviertel_Frankfurt_MainHer living quarters are dismal, the shared bathroom having fallen into the bleakest state of disrepair, Nanou resorts to borrowing the bathroom of another friend, where her morning wash routine is clinical, a mere formality rather than something to be enjoyed: ‘I wash with a mini soap. I like feeling the roughness of my skin, the way it goes taut and chapped after washing. Shower gel is too gentle. It leaves your skin slightly greasy, like when you oil it. I prefer it when my skin’s dry. I feel cleansed – disinfected.’
After leaving the discomfort of her living quarters for a day on the street Nanou meets an extraordinary circus of men. Among them Dominic, a young man who, having been convinced of his family’s desire to murder him, beat them to it and earned himself life in an institution, and Emmanuel a dreary school worker, who has no friends and spends each Saturday when his wife is away sneakily masturbating into their sofa.
Of course Nanou does not really notice these men. She is not really there when she sees them, making small talk, being kind and giving them what they want is all part of the service after all. It is just as much a part of prostitution as the selling of her body itself. These men use her as escape, as a method of running away from the harsh realities of life, which she herself has come to accept. The reality is that these men do not even come close to being with Nanou when they pay for her services: ‘I can tell you that when they screw me, when they get all horny jiggling about on top of my poor inert body, those sad suckers are well and truly alone.
640px-Prostitute_tj
Her work day is rhythmic, relentless and monotonous ‘like a factory worker in a production line. The same action relentlessly for years. No hope. A little factory worker of the flesh’. She gets no pleasure from the lifestyle, other than the cigarettes and coffee bought with her wages. As the day progresses Nanou’s thoughts become bleaker and bleaker, as though she has an intrinsic hatred of everything she stands for. She is not self-pitying, but self-loathing, considering herself to be of no worth other than a temporary recipient of other men’s primal desires: ‘I feel hollow – as commonplace as a chamberpot that you plonk down beside the bed.’
The day drags on, and the money comes easily, ‘but at what cost?’ she asks herself. She works the street all day, until finally, after her sixth client and a day spent absorbing the filth of the city, it is time to go home. ‘At last’ she thinks, ‘I can go to bed, turn on the television and light up another fag.’
Nanou is a streetwalker in Paris. Her heart has taken on the colour of the pavement. And when she falls asleep she knows ‘Tomorrow is another day.’
Taken at face value Zenith Hotel is a striking representation of the depressing life lead by a Parisian prostitute, but it is also deeply poetic, insightful, and beautiful in a way which speaks mountains about the work of Coop-Phane. Nanou is the picture of a life lost to the grime of the Paris streets, her ‘soul sweats the filth of the city’, and her words speak volumes.
Originally posted on Jade the Obscure
May 30, 2021
kitap mi okudum fransiz filmi mi izledim bilmiyorum, bu insanlarin kim oldugunu ve neden hayatlarini ogrenip kafa yordugumu da bilmiyorum.
yani bilmiyorum, bilmiyorum hicbir sey
yani bilmiyorum, bilmiyorum hicbir sey
March 3, 2017
2,5/5. Une déception. Je m'attendais a un roman intéressant, ou dans le pire des cas divertissant, mais en fait il n'est ni l'un ni l’autre. Un y suit une prostituée, et par chapitres entrecoupés, ses clients. Un concept intéressant, mais le manque de profondeur, les personnages tellement stéréotypés que cela devient ridicule et une histoire/intrigue absente font qu'il s'agit d'un livre ayant un bon contenant, mais bien peu de contenu et une absence émotive, on reste complètement détachés (peut-être en raison des coupures continue entre la prostitué et ses clients) qui fait qu'on n'arrive pas à être touché par l'histoire. Bien ordinaire!
March 19, 2014
Review at www.mygreedyreads.blogspot.co.uk
Recently I was lucky enough to be featured on the back cover of Arcadia's brand spanking new release Zenith Hotel. They sent me the mini-novel with the task of writing an 140 character review for twitter - I felt so modern. And now my quote is on the back of the book itself (which is published today), so exciting! So I thought it was time to write a proper review to truly honour this snapshot of literary brilliance
In my tweet review I called the story 'raw and unashamedly honest'. It follows the days of Nanou, a French street prostitute, her perspective is disjointed by the stories of her various (and very varying) clients. There is no sensationalising or glamorising in this novel, it is as purely frank as I could imagine an account of this way of life could be. What especially struck me was the base, simplistic details of each of Nanou's clients' lives that Coop-Phane tells us. The mundanity, instead of making the stories tedious and boring, increases the candid realism of the novel. Nothing is left out, and similarly nothing is unnecessarily added in. So many novels concerning abuse or prostitution are saturated in an over-exaggeration of sexual language and images, and disturbing details, I find they take away from the story and characters in their quest to shock the reader.
Zenith Hotel completely avoids this trap and Coop-Phane handles such a dark theme through making it the backdrop for the stories, but not letting it dictate the entire novel. Instead, he uses the prostitution to blacken the tone of each story and exploit the desperation and isolation of the characters' lives.
Inspired by this overarching quality in the book, I called it a 'flash of the unity of loneliness within the crowd of humanity' - this came out of the way the characters were so contrasting - from ex-con to caretaker to frustrated husband - and yet all linked through the extreme loneliness that drives them to Nanou. Her service becomes less sexual and more emotional - if only for a few minutes. Through this, the choice of each character becomes random, they are each a chance cross-section of humanity, through their own detachment from it they convey it in all its terrifying immensity.
In my opinion, a review of a somewhat minimalist book should itself be no more than minimal. Coop-Phane leaves the book open to the reader, not to judge, but not interpret, and I can guarantee you will be interpreting it over and over again for days after you've finished it.
Recently I was lucky enough to be featured on the back cover of Arcadia's brand spanking new release Zenith Hotel. They sent me the mini-novel with the task of writing an 140 character review for twitter - I felt so modern. And now my quote is on the back of the book itself (which is published today), so exciting! So I thought it was time to write a proper review to truly honour this snapshot of literary brilliance
In my tweet review I called the story 'raw and unashamedly honest'. It follows the days of Nanou, a French street prostitute, her perspective is disjointed by the stories of her various (and very varying) clients. There is no sensationalising or glamorising in this novel, it is as purely frank as I could imagine an account of this way of life could be. What especially struck me was the base, simplistic details of each of Nanou's clients' lives that Coop-Phane tells us. The mundanity, instead of making the stories tedious and boring, increases the candid realism of the novel. Nothing is left out, and similarly nothing is unnecessarily added in. So many novels concerning abuse or prostitution are saturated in an over-exaggeration of sexual language and images, and disturbing details, I find they take away from the story and characters in their quest to shock the reader.
Zenith Hotel completely avoids this trap and Coop-Phane handles such a dark theme through making it the backdrop for the stories, but not letting it dictate the entire novel. Instead, he uses the prostitution to blacken the tone of each story and exploit the desperation and isolation of the characters' lives.
Inspired by this overarching quality in the book, I called it a 'flash of the unity of loneliness within the crowd of humanity' - this came out of the way the characters were so contrasting - from ex-con to caretaker to frustrated husband - and yet all linked through the extreme loneliness that drives them to Nanou. Her service becomes less sexual and more emotional - if only for a few minutes. Through this, the choice of each character becomes random, they are each a chance cross-section of humanity, through their own detachment from it they convey it in all its terrifying immensity.
In my opinion, a review of a somewhat minimalist book should itself be no more than minimal. Coop-Phane leaves the book open to the reader, not to judge, but not interpret, and I can guarantee you will be interpreting it over and over again for days after you've finished it.
April 7, 2014
Set in the seedy side of Paris
see where the novel is set
Zenith Hotel is set in Paris but this is not the Paris you know and love – this is the Paris that is right there in front of your eyes but which you never see. As this is the Paris Nanou – a streetwalker- is about to introduce us to.
There are no introductions, no explanations of backstory; nothing. The reader is thrown into Nanou’s life and the effect is startling -
‘When I wake up, my teeth feel furry. There’s a foul taste in my mouth – a nasty sort of animal taste. Still, it’s better than at night, when I have the aftertaste of other people and their filth.’
Although this is Nanou’s story, it is also the story of her clients – and gives a stark and sometimes painful yet always truthful portrayal of each one. These people range from sad,lonely and dispossessed and often a mix of all three.
By writing short sentences in brief chapters, the author structures the novel in such a way that the physical book is exactly what it portrays inside – a snapshot of the shabby heart of Parisian life.
The story is raw and shockingly vivid at times and so is not an easy read, but when you consider that the author is only young, and that this reads as if written by an older author with a lifetime of life experience then it is all the more admirable and impressive an account of a life that luckily most of us will never experience for ourselves.
A book of vignettes of Paris life that fits more into its small 99 pages that most novels do in 400.
see where the novel is set
Zenith Hotel is set in Paris but this is not the Paris you know and love – this is the Paris that is right there in front of your eyes but which you never see. As this is the Paris Nanou – a streetwalker- is about to introduce us to.
There are no introductions, no explanations of backstory; nothing. The reader is thrown into Nanou’s life and the effect is startling -
‘When I wake up, my teeth feel furry. There’s a foul taste in my mouth – a nasty sort of animal taste. Still, it’s better than at night, when I have the aftertaste of other people and their filth.’
Although this is Nanou’s story, it is also the story of her clients – and gives a stark and sometimes painful yet always truthful portrayal of each one. These people range from sad,lonely and dispossessed and often a mix of all three.
By writing short sentences in brief chapters, the author structures the novel in such a way that the physical book is exactly what it portrays inside – a snapshot of the shabby heart of Parisian life.
The story is raw and shockingly vivid at times and so is not an easy read, but when you consider that the author is only young, and that this reads as if written by an older author with a lifetime of life experience then it is all the more admirable and impressive an account of a life that luckily most of us will never experience for ourselves.
A book of vignettes of Paris life that fits more into its small 99 pages that most novels do in 400.
October 26, 2018
Roman d'une grande maîtrise et qui ne redonne pas espoir en l'humanité...
March 20, 2014
I picked this one up on a whim. Who knows? Sometimes you might be pleasantly surprised.
This was definitely not the case.
Zenith Hotel is narrated by Nanou, a street whore, and it tells us about how she spends one of her days. Of course, you learn that she does the exact same thing every single day, so there was no point in talking about other days.
You also have a bit of the lives of her clients, like Dominic, the crazy inmate who killed all the people who lived in his house when he was a young boy, just because he was sure they planned to kill him by bashing his head in the piano; Emmanuel, the high school supervisor aka control freak aka pervert, obsessed with big boobs; Victor, the mental case obsessed with his dying dog, Baton, shit and murder and so on.
Basically, everyone was damn crazy.
I've never read something where every single character should be institutionalised, because they presented a serious danger to poor unsuspecting citizens, but here it is.
I don't give a fuck about any prize this might have won. The story is a mess, the characters even worse and the writing is not that good.
Don't even think about reading this book. Not unless you're mad as a hatter as well.
March 18, 2014
For a young man, Oscar Coop-Phane packs quite a punch with his writing - accomplished yes, you could almost believe that this is a writer who has been doing this for years - but also emotive, fascinating and with an insight into his characters that is second to none.
This is a uniquely human story, with a solitary, pragmatic soul at the heart of it, simply telling us about her day. The people she encounters, the raw side of humanity, with some little gems of purely poetic insight into the things that drive us. Set against the backdrop of a Paris unseen by most, this truly is a most amazing debut.
I read this in one sitting, immersed in that world, barely breathing - it hooks you straight in, holds you there until you emerge with a vague sense of wanting something you are not quite sure of. These are the moments readers read for..
One word. Wonderful.
This is a uniquely human story, with a solitary, pragmatic soul at the heart of it, simply telling us about her day. The people she encounters, the raw side of humanity, with some little gems of purely poetic insight into the things that drive us. Set against the backdrop of a Paris unseen by most, this truly is a most amazing debut.
I read this in one sitting, immersed in that world, barely breathing - it hooks you straight in, holds you there until you emerge with a vague sense of wanting something you are not quite sure of. These are the moments readers read for..
One word. Wonderful.
June 18, 2014
Zenith Hotel is a beautifully written novel. Set in Paris it is the story of Nanou, a prostitute, and some of her clients. Only short, but long enough for the reader to see the loneliness of all the people who feature.
I felt that this book was all about the people that society doesn't want to see in any city in the world. It's not depressing or maudlin it's just life for some.
Oscar Coop -Phane is definitely an author I will be looking for in the future. Many thanks to Arcadia Books for sending me a copy of this book.
I felt that this book was all about the people that society doesn't want to see in any city in the world. It's not depressing or maudlin it's just life for some.
Oscar Coop -Phane is definitely an author I will be looking for in the future. Many thanks to Arcadia Books for sending me a copy of this book.
September 20, 2026
Zenith Hotel left me with the feeling of a novel that could have been much more than it ultimately became.
The premise has genuine potential. Through the men who pass through the narrator’s room, Oscar Coop-Phane catches glimpses of loneliness, failure, desire, disappointment and the quiet misery of ordinary lives. There is enough material here for a genuinely compelling novel, one that could have explored both these men and the woman observing them with far greater psychological depth.
Instead, the book often reads like the literary blog of an anonymous prostitute - one client arrives, his appearance and circumstances are sketched, a fragment of his life is revealed, and then he disappears, making room for the next. Between these encounters, the narrator occasionally inserts brief pieces of her own history, but they never quite accumulate into the emotional or psychological portrait I kept expecting.
That is not to say the individual stories are without interest. Some are perceptive, bleak and quietly affecting. The problem is that they remain fragments. Just when a character begins to seem worth knowing, the book moves on. The narrator herself, potentially the most fascinating person in the novel, remains strangely underdeveloped.
Perhaps this fragmentation is deliberate...after all, she knows these men only through fleeting encounters, and they know almost nothing about her. But even accepting that, I was left wanting greater cohesion and depth. The material is there, the novel simply does not dig deeply enough into it.
For me, Zenith Hotel feels less like a fully realized novel than a collection of literary snapshots: intriguing, sometimes sharp, occasionally moving, but ultimately more suggestive of what it could have been than satisfying for what it is
The premise has genuine potential. Through the men who pass through the narrator’s room, Oscar Coop-Phane catches glimpses of loneliness, failure, desire, disappointment and the quiet misery of ordinary lives. There is enough material here for a genuinely compelling novel, one that could have explored both these men and the woman observing them with far greater psychological depth.
Instead, the book often reads like the literary blog of an anonymous prostitute - one client arrives, his appearance and circumstances are sketched, a fragment of his life is revealed, and then he disappears, making room for the next. Between these encounters, the narrator occasionally inserts brief pieces of her own history, but they never quite accumulate into the emotional or psychological portrait I kept expecting.
That is not to say the individual stories are without interest. Some are perceptive, bleak and quietly affecting. The problem is that they remain fragments. Just when a character begins to seem worth knowing, the book moves on. The narrator herself, potentially the most fascinating person in the novel, remains strangely underdeveloped.
Perhaps this fragmentation is deliberate...after all, she knows these men only through fleeting encounters, and they know almost nothing about her. But even accepting that, I was left wanting greater cohesion and depth. The material is there, the novel simply does not dig deeply enough into it.
For me, Zenith Hotel feels less like a fully realized novel than a collection of literary snapshots: intriguing, sometimes sharp, occasionally moving, but ultimately more suggestive of what it could have been than satisfying for what it is
August 28, 2022
This was a very quick read. I'd not say that it blew me away. It seemed amazing to me that it received the reviews it did. I can remember when the tide turned on writers writing novels about prostitutes. And this was published in 2012... So it should have disappeared without a trace.
But for whatever reason it got sprinkled with compliments.
It's good, but not great.
Not much else to say. Maybe I liked the fact it dove into the lives it did in quite a good way?
Nothing here is as 'eviscerating' or 'provoking' or 'intense' as it is suggested to be. It's actually quite gentle and deceptively mundane. I actually appreciated that it didn't seek to shock. It was just people's lives... that's remarkable enough.
But for whatever reason it got sprinkled with compliments.
It's good, but not great.
Not much else to say. Maybe I liked the fact it dove into the lives it did in quite a good way?
Nothing here is as 'eviscerating' or 'provoking' or 'intense' as it is suggested to be. It's actually quite gentle and deceptively mundane. I actually appreciated that it didn't seek to shock. It was just people's lives... that's remarkable enough.
April 8, 2018
well, seriously, the best part about this book for me is
the cover.
i love it.
other than that, as they say do NOT judge a book by it's cover indeed.
after 50 pages i felt relieved when i threw it the other side of of the room.
(mentally that is - didn't want to damage the cover, not wake the cats)
i got more bored than the all star wars prequels combined.
maybe it gets better after page 51?
i'll never know.
and i'm perfectly fine with that.
too bad, because i like menthol cigarettes too.
no traces of calaferte to be found here.
(man, can't stop looking at that cover photo)
the cover.
i love it.
other than that, as they say do NOT judge a book by it's cover indeed.
after 50 pages i felt relieved when i threw it the other side of of the room.
(mentally that is - didn't want to damage the cover, not wake the cats)
i got more bored than the all star wars prequels combined.
maybe it gets better after page 51?
i'll never know.
and i'm perfectly fine with that.
too bad, because i like menthol cigarettes too.
no traces of calaferte to be found here.
(man, can't stop looking at that cover photo)
June 8, 2017
A short glimpse into the life of a "common streetwalker with high heels and menthol cigarettes" - Nanou. It's not a pretty look, but it's not anything dramatic for the sake of it - just a short window to look at her life and the lives of her clients, and then leave.
While I couldn't point at anything I particularly disliked - in fact the opposite, I quite enjoyed the way Mr Coop-Phane writes his characters - I can't say that this is a book that will stay with me long.
While I couldn't point at anything I particularly disliked - in fact the opposite, I quite enjoyed the way Mr Coop-Phane writes his characters - I can't say that this is a book that will stay with me long.
August 8, 2020
Won the Prix de Flore in 2012. The day of a street walker - a sparse, sensitive exploration into one of her days and her clients on that day. Above all a kind cameo - or a series of cameos delicately stitched together by the thread of the central character's voice - of a particular group of people.
December 21, 2025
J'ai aimé le rythme du livre: des phrases courtes, pas de détours. À plusieurs moments, je me suis dit que j'aimerais relire un segment plus tard.
Cependant, il n'y a pas assez de place pour le vécu de la femme. Je n'aurais pas enlever l'histoire de ces hommes, j'aurais tout simplement voulu en savoir plus sur elle. Mon appétit n'a pas été comblé à ce niveau.
Cependant, il n'y a pas assez de place pour le vécu de la femme. Je n'aurais pas enlever l'histoire de ces hommes, j'aurais tout simplement voulu en savoir plus sur elle. Mon appétit n'a pas été comblé à ce niveau.
July 25, 2019
Öykü kitabı olmuş dersek daha iyidir. Olaylar birbirine bağlanmamış. Neden bir fahişe seçilmiş hiç anlamadım. Hiçbir şeyi vermek istediği gibi verememiş. Bu kitap nasıl basılmış anlamadım.
November 30, 2021
"we're alone in the midst of people, we're alone in the midst of their solitude"
October 11, 2024
Akıcı, kısa kısa çeşitli hayat hikayeleri ve hepsinin birleştiği bir nokta olan bir hayat kadının hikayesi. Fena değildi, uzun süre sonra bir yeraltı kitabı okumak iyi geldi.
March 5, 2026
galiba hepimiz yalnızız ya
March 11, 2017
Très joliment écrit.
March 10, 2014
Zenith Hotel is a startling, darkly beautiful book. At less than a hundred pages long, it doesn't mess around with introductions, dragging you straight in to the squalor of a Parisian streetwalker's life:
'When I wake up, my teeth feel furry. There's a foul taste in my mouth - a nasty sort of animal taste. Still, it's better than at night, when I have the aftertaste of other people and their filth.'
This is the start of Nanou's day, a day of great hardships and small comforts. There's very little back-story, so we don't know what's brought her to this sordid existence. She smokes in bed, drinks coffee and writes without knowing why:
'It's not vital, it's not therapeutic. I don't know, I write to keep my hands occupied, like doodling on Post-its when you're on the phone. ..I'm a pen-pushing old slag. How about that?'
Between Nanou's words are interludes; individual character sketches of her clients, each one inhabiting a perfectly encapsulated world. Coop-Phane bringing to life the lonely and dispossessed, the mad and sad on the fringes of existence, in a way that earns your sympathy. There's a warmth here, an affection for his characters despite, or maybe because of, their failures:
'Robert is a sponge. He soaks up events and people, retaining everything in his thick, yellow foam. But, at some point, if someone grabs him, if he's crushed in the metro or in a cinema queue, he spews out everything in a stream of insults and platitudes'
You begin to understand why Robert might seek small solace with Nanou.
This isn't a familiar Paris but a vision of raw brutality, which makes the connections, glimpsed between Nanou and her clients, all the more extraordinary. In the midst of the detritus are precious shards of humanity. But this isn't just one day for her, it's the bleakness of every day:
'The rest is chit-chat, answering their questions, laughing at their jokes - that's another form of prostitution.'
The words of Coop-Phane are so much more poetic than mine that I could go on quoting him shamelessly. He was just twenty-three when he wrote Zenith Hotel, which won the Prix de Flore in 2012 and has now been translated from the French by Ros Schwartz.
Coop-Phane writes with economy in short, sharp sentences which hit home and stay with you long after you've finished. This, his first published work, has a visceral power which doesn't always make it an easy read. Despite that, searching for a flaw, I could only think it should have been longer, so I wasn't able to devour it all in one sitting. His next novel, Tomorrow, Berlin is due out in 2015 and personally, I can't wait.
'When I wake up, my teeth feel furry. There's a foul taste in my mouth - a nasty sort of animal taste. Still, it's better than at night, when I have the aftertaste of other people and their filth.'
This is the start of Nanou's day, a day of great hardships and small comforts. There's very little back-story, so we don't know what's brought her to this sordid existence. She smokes in bed, drinks coffee and writes without knowing why:
'It's not vital, it's not therapeutic. I don't know, I write to keep my hands occupied, like doodling on Post-its when you're on the phone. ..I'm a pen-pushing old slag. How about that?'
Between Nanou's words are interludes; individual character sketches of her clients, each one inhabiting a perfectly encapsulated world. Coop-Phane bringing to life the lonely and dispossessed, the mad and sad on the fringes of existence, in a way that earns your sympathy. There's a warmth here, an affection for his characters despite, or maybe because of, their failures:
'Robert is a sponge. He soaks up events and people, retaining everything in his thick, yellow foam. But, at some point, if someone grabs him, if he's crushed in the metro or in a cinema queue, he spews out everything in a stream of insults and platitudes'
You begin to understand why Robert might seek small solace with Nanou.
This isn't a familiar Paris but a vision of raw brutality, which makes the connections, glimpsed between Nanou and her clients, all the more extraordinary. In the midst of the detritus are precious shards of humanity. But this isn't just one day for her, it's the bleakness of every day:
'The rest is chit-chat, answering their questions, laughing at their jokes - that's another form of prostitution.'
The words of Coop-Phane are so much more poetic than mine that I could go on quoting him shamelessly. He was just twenty-three when he wrote Zenith Hotel, which won the Prix de Flore in 2012 and has now been translated from the French by Ros Schwartz.
Coop-Phane writes with economy in short, sharp sentences which hit home and stay with you long after you've finished. This, his first published work, has a visceral power which doesn't always make it an easy read. Despite that, searching for a flaw, I could only think it should have been longer, so I wasn't able to devour it all in one sitting. His next novel, Tomorrow, Berlin is due out in 2015 and personally, I can't wait.
March 11, 2014
Zenith Hotel
By Oscar Coop-Phane
Translated from the French by Ros Schwartz
Arcadia Books, 99 pgs
978-1-909807-50-1
Submitted by the publisher
Rating: 4 of 5
A man is born alone and dies alone; and he experiences the good and bad consequences of his karma alone; and he goes alone to hell or the Supreme abode. - Chanakya
I don't want to be alone, I want to be left alone. - Audrey Hepburn
Such a diminutive volume, so deceptive. Zenith Hotel, the debut novel by Oscar Coop-Phane, is not an easy book, though it's only ninety-nine pages. It's not a moderately challenging book. Zenith Hotel is a difficult book, a demanding book. It is ninety-nine pages of exquisitely rendered portraits of the inescapable human condition we spend all of our time trying to escape: solitude.
Nanou is a "...streetwalker. Not a call girl or anything like that, no, a common streetwalker with high heels and menthol cigarettes." She lives alone in a squalid studio in Paris. Nanou makes no apologies or excuses; she offers no explanations. Zenith Hotel is a slice-of-life à la Raymond Carver, a single day that represents all days; nothing changes. Nothing changes in the lives of her customers either: Dominic is mentally ill; Emmanuel is suffocating in suburbia; Victor's only family, his dog Baton, is dying; Luc is learning to accommodate his sadness, to make room for it inside his skin, so that it doesn't devour him whole; Jean Paul asks for coffee, struggling with the compromises between idyll and practicality that we all must make; Robert intermittently makes the effort to reach for what he thinks he should want, only to retreat. These men could be any one of us; they are us. Nanou is a repository. She collects and absorbs the despair and inchoate longings of the men who hire her. There but for the grace of god.
Zenith Hotel is not going to be everyone's cup of tea. It is not pretty and pulls no punches. It is both sacred and profane, simultaneously subtle and in your face. If what you like most is plot or action then look elsewhere. If you require your story in a neat package with a bow on top at the end or, for that matter, a conclusion to your story, then look elsewhere. But if you are brave and empathetic and curious and tend toward the poetic, then you will appreciate this work. It's worth the effort. Be brave and curious.
The author, Oscar Coop-Phane, left home at sixteen for a career as a painter. At twenty he made his way to Berlin where he began to write. The result was Zenith Hotel, which won the Prix de Flore in 2012, and Tomorrow, Berlin, which will be released in translation by Arcadia Books in 2015. His third novel, Octubre, is due later this year.
By Oscar Coop-Phane
Translated from the French by Ros Schwartz
Arcadia Books, 99 pgs
978-1-909807-50-1
Submitted by the publisher
Rating: 4 of 5
A man is born alone and dies alone; and he experiences the good and bad consequences of his karma alone; and he goes alone to hell or the Supreme abode. - Chanakya
I don't want to be alone, I want to be left alone. - Audrey Hepburn
Such a diminutive volume, so deceptive. Zenith Hotel, the debut novel by Oscar Coop-Phane, is not an easy book, though it's only ninety-nine pages. It's not a moderately challenging book. Zenith Hotel is a difficult book, a demanding book. It is ninety-nine pages of exquisitely rendered portraits of the inescapable human condition we spend all of our time trying to escape: solitude.
Nanou is a "...streetwalker. Not a call girl or anything like that, no, a common streetwalker with high heels and menthol cigarettes." She lives alone in a squalid studio in Paris. Nanou makes no apologies or excuses; she offers no explanations. Zenith Hotel is a slice-of-life à la Raymond Carver, a single day that represents all days; nothing changes. Nothing changes in the lives of her customers either: Dominic is mentally ill; Emmanuel is suffocating in suburbia; Victor's only family, his dog Baton, is dying; Luc is learning to accommodate his sadness, to make room for it inside his skin, so that it doesn't devour him whole; Jean Paul asks for coffee, struggling with the compromises between idyll and practicality that we all must make; Robert intermittently makes the effort to reach for what he thinks he should want, only to retreat. These men could be any one of us; they are us. Nanou is a repository. She collects and absorbs the despair and inchoate longings of the men who hire her. There but for the grace of god.
Zenith Hotel is not going to be everyone's cup of tea. It is not pretty and pulls no punches. It is both sacred and profane, simultaneously subtle and in your face. If what you like most is plot or action then look elsewhere. If you require your story in a neat package with a bow on top at the end or, for that matter, a conclusion to your story, then look elsewhere. But if you are brave and empathetic and curious and tend toward the poetic, then you will appreciate this work. It's worth the effort. Be brave and curious.
The author, Oscar Coop-Phane, left home at sixteen for a career as a painter. At twenty he made his way to Berlin where he began to write. The result was Zenith Hotel, which won the Prix de Flore in 2012, and Tomorrow, Berlin, which will be released in translation by Arcadia Books in 2015. His third novel, Octubre, is due later this year.
March 30, 2014
This is a short book (97 pages) translated from French. It is very different to anything I have read before. The author is incredibly talented in being able to portray the characters so well in such a short book.
We are introduced to Nanou who openly admits from the start to being a prostitute, not a high end hooker, but a street walker. We are introduced her world which appears to be very lonely, bare and sad. The book is written as Nanou keeping a notebook, revealing very brief snippets of her life, but I do mean brief. Nanou says from the outset that she doesn't want to reveal anything about herself and her life, and as you look back at the book you will see that she hasn't.
The skill of the author in tellng Nanou's story via clients is very very clever. I felt a real sense of sadness and warmth towards her. I felt that her life was quite sordid and that she was very lonely but stuck without a way out. The brief snippets eluded, in my view, to quite a tough upbringing without the love and support to give her a decent go at life.
I was fascinated by the stories of Nanou's clients. It definitely challenged by perception of the type of man who used the services of a prostitute and I was really drawn in by the stories and sadness within their lives. They really make the book. It's a bit like being a fly on the wall in these men's life and seeing how behind their public masks they all, like Nanou, are sad and feel like key things to make them happy are missing. I felt desperately sad both for Nanou and the men. They were all, Nanou included, looking for happiness, but seemed unable to find it. The act of sex seemed like a mechanical outlet for the men rather than the feeling of intimacy, love and warmth that sex should bring. I also sensed the disgust and feeling of self loathing that Nanou felt towards herself.
What a fantastic book by a very skilled author. I felt so sad to leave her in the Zenith Hotel and wanted to write a final chapter where the knight in shining armour comes in and rescues her, just like in pretty woman. The book is a stark reminder of what women go through every day, invisible to most of society, and looked down on by those that do see them, and judge them without knowing anything about them or their lives.
Thank you to Arcadia for providing me with a copy of the book in return for an honest review.
We are introduced to Nanou who openly admits from the start to being a prostitute, not a high end hooker, but a street walker. We are introduced her world which appears to be very lonely, bare and sad. The book is written as Nanou keeping a notebook, revealing very brief snippets of her life, but I do mean brief. Nanou says from the outset that she doesn't want to reveal anything about herself and her life, and as you look back at the book you will see that she hasn't.
The skill of the author in tellng Nanou's story via clients is very very clever. I felt a real sense of sadness and warmth towards her. I felt that her life was quite sordid and that she was very lonely but stuck without a way out. The brief snippets eluded, in my view, to quite a tough upbringing without the love and support to give her a decent go at life.
I was fascinated by the stories of Nanou's clients. It definitely challenged by perception of the type of man who used the services of a prostitute and I was really drawn in by the stories and sadness within their lives. They really make the book. It's a bit like being a fly on the wall in these men's life and seeing how behind their public masks they all, like Nanou, are sad and feel like key things to make them happy are missing. I felt desperately sad both for Nanou and the men. They were all, Nanou included, looking for happiness, but seemed unable to find it. The act of sex seemed like a mechanical outlet for the men rather than the feeling of intimacy, love and warmth that sex should bring. I also sensed the disgust and feeling of self loathing that Nanou felt towards herself.
What a fantastic book by a very skilled author. I felt so sad to leave her in the Zenith Hotel and wanted to write a final chapter where the knight in shining armour comes in and rescues her, just like in pretty woman. The book is a stark reminder of what women go through every day, invisible to most of society, and looked down on by those that do see them, and judge them without knowing anything about them or their lives.
Thank you to Arcadia for providing me with a copy of the book in return for an honest review.
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