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Hotel and Farm
From award-winning cartoonist and author of The Dairy Restaurant, Real Estate Photographer, and The Jew of New York: a new collection of graphic narratives preserved in Ben Katchor’s timeless illustrations.
Late one night, in an Echoic City basement cafeteria, a group of story-addicts linger after dinner to share 140 tales that examine the mysteries and idiosyncrasies of hotel culture and agriculture. The hotel stories explore the erotic quality of miniature shampoo containers, the pleasures of life between international time zones, the dangers of glossy magazines, and the hotel lobby as a breeding ground for petty crime. The agriculture stories detail the little-known practice of twice-killing meat, the cultivation and sale of exotic produce, the whitewashing of trees, and the arrangement of fruit as an art form. With Ben Katchor’s signature style and wit, the stories in Hotel and Farm weave together the joys and woes of both industries into one unprecedented and unerring graphic novel.
Late one night, in an Echoic City basement cafeteria, a group of story-addicts linger after dinner to share 140 tales that examine the mysteries and idiosyncrasies of hotel culture and agriculture. The hotel stories explore the erotic quality of miniature shampoo containers, the pleasures of life between international time zones, the dangers of glossy magazines, and the hotel lobby as a breeding ground for petty crime. The agriculture stories detail the little-known practice of twice-killing meat, the cultivation and sale of exotic produce, the whitewashing of trees, and the arrangement of fruit as an art form. With Ben Katchor’s signature style and wit, the stories in Hotel and Farm weave together the joys and woes of both industries into one unprecedented and unerring graphic novel.
176 pages, Hardcover
Published October 6, 2026
About the author
Ben Katchor
26 books100 followersBen Katchor (born 1951 in Brooklyn, NY) is an American cartoonist. His comic strip Julius Knipl, Real Estate Photographer paints an evocative picture of a slightly surreal, historical New York City with a decidedly Yiddish, sensibility. Julius Knipl has been published in several book collections including Cheap Novelties: The Pleasure of Urban Decay and The Beauty Supply District. Other serialized comics by Katchor include The Jew Of New York (collected and published in 1998), The Cardboard Valise (2011) and Hotel & Farm (2026). He has also collaborated on music-theater productions with Mark Mulcahy and Bang on a Can.
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Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
My thank to NetGalley and Knopf, Pantheon, Vintage, and Anchor for an advance copy of this graphic novel that tells a tale that ranges across characters, places, times and social scenarios, from vast industrial farms, urban settings, modern homes and rich resorts under bridges, a tale about life, about people, about the importance of stories, and of the weirdness of life and dreams.
I don't have many books in my collection that have a luggage handle attached to them. Or tell stories about real estate photographers, or even the history of hand dryers. Not illustrated at least. Nor about Jewish life and history, or surreal tales about moving through America, getting ahead or falling behind. Ben Katchor is responsible for most of the these books. I don't know how I came across Katchor's works. I feel the aforementioned Cardboard Valise was my first reading, but I might be wrong, or I am right in this reality, another it might have been something else. That is what I enjoy most about Katchor, things might be odd, things might be funny and weird, but somehow, someway, they make sense. And they art is always really spot on. Hotel and Farm by Ben Katchor is a graphic tale of agriculture, the rich, the poor, hotels, shiny magazines, story telling, delis, manicuring cows and much more.
The plot is hard to explain, so I will probably jump around. A lot. A man has made and lost a fortune in the field of manure, supplying it not to farms for fertilizer but to rich families to keep them grounded. The architecture of the 21st century include manure pits, to keep the smell strong, and the people grounded. However the rich want to feel even more of the people, and decided not to pay their bills, living under bridges catered to by porters, who have had enough. The manure seller is suddenly short of cash, selling corsages reeking of manure on the streets. A writer offers him a meal, where the night ends with stories, the best stories getting dried sausages dumped on them. In the farms cows are in a bad mood, not wanting to go their manicures for the smell of cheap hot dogs that fill the air. A beet farmer is chased out of town for trying to sell beets. A man is blinded by glossy magazine covers in a hotel lobby. Another tanned through his tv from bright television shows.
The story is full of characters, some appearing for just snippets, some being major characters that occur regularly. This is a weird book, a mix of David Byrne's True Stories, with David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. Blindfolded men picking nuts in a field, beet farmers trying to sell wares, porters going on strike under bridges. And yet things start to gel, and one can see what Katchor is getting at. The high speed of the world, the crazy crass commercialism. The idea of rich people slumming. And how weird modern life is. The art is really good, all the characters look distinct, and the urban setting is really shown well. The stories are told like newspaper strips, 4 panels, that might end of go one to a larger story.
I can see this being a hard read for some. I love Katchor's work the uniqueness of his vision, even the uniqueness of the books design. Fans of the surreal, the story that might go nowhere, but is fun getting there. People who like odd things, and great art work. A really great creator who keeps creating art that is both personal, different, odd, and not afraid to make a reader work for it. I can't wait to read this again.
I don't have many books in my collection that have a luggage handle attached to them. Or tell stories about real estate photographers, or even the history of hand dryers. Not illustrated at least. Nor about Jewish life and history, or surreal tales about moving through America, getting ahead or falling behind. Ben Katchor is responsible for most of the these books. I don't know how I came across Katchor's works. I feel the aforementioned Cardboard Valise was my first reading, but I might be wrong, or I am right in this reality, another it might have been something else. That is what I enjoy most about Katchor, things might be odd, things might be funny and weird, but somehow, someway, they make sense. And they art is always really spot on. Hotel and Farm by Ben Katchor is a graphic tale of agriculture, the rich, the poor, hotels, shiny magazines, story telling, delis, manicuring cows and much more.
The plot is hard to explain, so I will probably jump around. A lot. A man has made and lost a fortune in the field of manure, supplying it not to farms for fertilizer but to rich families to keep them grounded. The architecture of the 21st century include manure pits, to keep the smell strong, and the people grounded. However the rich want to feel even more of the people, and decided not to pay their bills, living under bridges catered to by porters, who have had enough. The manure seller is suddenly short of cash, selling corsages reeking of manure on the streets. A writer offers him a meal, where the night ends with stories, the best stories getting dried sausages dumped on them. In the farms cows are in a bad mood, not wanting to go their manicures for the smell of cheap hot dogs that fill the air. A beet farmer is chased out of town for trying to sell beets. A man is blinded by glossy magazine covers in a hotel lobby. Another tanned through his tv from bright television shows.
The story is full of characters, some appearing for just snippets, some being major characters that occur regularly. This is a weird book, a mix of David Byrne's True Stories, with David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. Blindfolded men picking nuts in a field, beet farmers trying to sell wares, porters going on strike under bridges. And yet things start to gel, and one can see what Katchor is getting at. The high speed of the world, the crazy crass commercialism. The idea of rich people slumming. And how weird modern life is. The art is really good, all the characters look distinct, and the urban setting is really shown well. The stories are told like newspaper strips, 4 panels, that might end of go one to a larger story.
I can see this being a hard read for some. I love Katchor's work the uniqueness of his vision, even the uniqueness of the books design. Fans of the surreal, the story that might go nowhere, but is fun getting there. People who like odd things, and great art work. A really great creator who keeps creating art that is both personal, different, odd, and not afraid to make a reader work for it. I can't wait to read this again.
Displaying 1 - 1 of 1 review