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Horizontal Hotel
"The Guardian" newspaper,
“Will appeal to those who like to be kept guessing, who neither expect not want a novel to flag its style, tone and message from the first page. ..The African scene, the human groupings within it, are excellently done. All is trembling on the edge of breakdown, yet the writing stays cool; the effect is of a quiet delirium.”
Anuradha Vittachi in the New
“In Roger King’s Horizontal Hotel, Africa is both a physical location and ‘an area of our minds’. The narrator, John Meddows, is the Deputy Director of Rural Planning in an unnamed African republic. The novel spans only one day, but that day encompasses a long mental journey. Meddows has a fever, and King’s writing is intense and feverish, full of the minute observations of an obsessed and prophetic ‘Outside, a mist of pink Saharan dust loiters oppressively’ – the world seems tinted, slightly askew.
King explores the subtleties of the neo-colonial relationship of white men working within a black government, where the rules of the game are less strictly defined. Meddows’ boss Adrian is a typical well-intentioned technocrat, aloof from the society he is trying to plan. His colleague Obi, on the other hand is an African on the make, whose favourite word is ‘modern.’ Meddows’ own response is to experience Africa raw and to dance the night away at the Horizontal Hotel.”
“Will appeal to those who like to be kept guessing, who neither expect not want a novel to flag its style, tone and message from the first page. ..The African scene, the human groupings within it, are excellently done. All is trembling on the edge of breakdown, yet the writing stays cool; the effect is of a quiet delirium.”
Anuradha Vittachi in the New
“In Roger King’s Horizontal Hotel, Africa is both a physical location and ‘an area of our minds’. The narrator, John Meddows, is the Deputy Director of Rural Planning in an unnamed African republic. The novel spans only one day, but that day encompasses a long mental journey. Meddows has a fever, and King’s writing is intense and feverish, full of the minute observations of an obsessed and prophetic ‘Outside, a mist of pink Saharan dust loiters oppressively’ – the world seems tinted, slightly askew.
King explores the subtleties of the neo-colonial relationship of white men working within a black government, where the rules of the game are less strictly defined. Meddows’ boss Adrian is a typical well-intentioned technocrat, aloof from the society he is trying to plan. His colleague Obi, on the other hand is an African on the make, whose favourite word is ‘modern.’ Meddows’ own response is to experience Africa raw and to dance the night away at the Horizontal Hotel.”
126 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 27, 2013
About the author
Roger King
13 books25 followersBorn on the northern border of London. Dad worked in a factory making lightbulbs, Mum was a bookkeeper. Happy enough.
Went to universities in UK and US, ending up with a doctorate in agricultural economics
Pursued career in "international development" concurrent with writing fiction. First novel was "Horizontal Hotel," set in Nigeria, after a spell teaching rural development at Ahmadu Bello University in that country.
http://rogerking.org/novels/horizonta...
Second novel, "Written on a Strangers Map" followed work in Sierra Leone, Liberia and The Gambia, and drew on the experience of becoming more personally and politically involved in these countries than was appropriate for a UN employee.
http://rogerking.org/novels/written-o...
Went on to work for UN agencies in twenty countries in Asia and Africa, before falling chronically ill with ME disease at 44. At the time he was a new professor of creative writing in the US, and had just completed the novel "Sea Level," which drew on multiple visits to Pakistan and Polynesia.
http://rogerking.org/novels/sea-level/
The prizewinning novel, "A Girl From Zanzibar," was published in 2002. His script of this book is perpetually on the brink of being made into a feature film.
http://rogerking.org/novels/a-girl-fr...
He executive produced, with Mira Nair, the feature documentary,"Still the Children Are Here," (2004) set in Megalaya, northeast India.
http://rogerking.org/film-more/
His autobiographical novel, "Love and Fatigue in America," about the experience of making a new life in the US while disabled by illness, was published in 2012.
http://rogerking.org/novels/love-and-...
He has won prizes for fiction and screenwriting, and received numerous fellowships, including those at The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, VCCA, and Fundacion Valparaiso in Spain. He was a recent visiting fellow at Amherst College.
His work has been glowingly reviewed in the New York Times, The New Yorker, The Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, and points south.
His books have not made him rich.
The jagged trajectory of his personal life can be deduced from reading his novels, allowing for imaginative misdirection. Looks colorful; felt painful.
He lives in Leverett Massachusetts with Django the canine cover model, and tries to spend time on sailing boats, purely for health reasons.
Finds coffee therapeutic
Is working a new novel.
Earlier novels soon to be republished.
Went to universities in UK and US, ending up with a doctorate in agricultural economics
Pursued career in "international development" concurrent with writing fiction. First novel was "Horizontal Hotel," set in Nigeria, after a spell teaching rural development at Ahmadu Bello University in that country.
http://rogerking.org/novels/horizonta...
Second novel, "Written on a Strangers Map" followed work in Sierra Leone, Liberia and The Gambia, and drew on the experience of becoming more personally and politically involved in these countries than was appropriate for a UN employee.
http://rogerking.org/novels/written-o...
Went on to work for UN agencies in twenty countries in Asia and Africa, before falling chronically ill with ME disease at 44. At the time he was a new professor of creative writing in the US, and had just completed the novel "Sea Level," which drew on multiple visits to Pakistan and Polynesia.
http://rogerking.org/novels/sea-level/
The prizewinning novel, "A Girl From Zanzibar," was published in 2002. His script of this book is perpetually on the brink of being made into a feature film.
http://rogerking.org/novels/a-girl-fr...
He executive produced, with Mira Nair, the feature documentary,"Still the Children Are Here," (2004) set in Megalaya, northeast India.
http://rogerking.org/film-more/
His autobiographical novel, "Love and Fatigue in America," about the experience of making a new life in the US while disabled by illness, was published in 2012.
http://rogerking.org/novels/love-and-...
He has won prizes for fiction and screenwriting, and received numerous fellowships, including those at The MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, VCCA, and Fundacion Valparaiso in Spain. He was a recent visiting fellow at Amherst College.
His work has been glowingly reviewed in the New York Times, The New Yorker, The Times Literary Supplement, The Guardian, and points south.
His books have not made him rich.
The jagged trajectory of his personal life can be deduced from reading his novels, allowing for imaginative misdirection. Looks colorful; felt painful.
He lives in Leverett Massachusetts with Django the canine cover model, and tries to spend time on sailing boats, purely for health reasons.
Finds coffee therapeutic
Is working a new novel.
Earlier novels soon to be republished.
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