The Hotel Albatross

by Debra Adelaide

From the bestselling author of The Household Guide to Dying comes a funny and moving account of life in the country.The Captain and his wife accidentally find themselves managing the Hotel Albatross. The Captain floats between the hotel's various chatting to and chatting up customers, breaking up fights, and dealing calmly with the simmering tensions of a small town. His wife has her hands full with the day-to-day running of the mediating between family members fighting over wedding decorations, appeasing disgruntled staff members and dealing with the horror of what lies in room 101. She also dreams of getting out...Debra Adelaide has created a wonderfully poignant novel about hotel management and human nature. She weaves the eccentric cast of characters together beautifully with the politics of life in a small town to give the reader a sometimes humorous, sometimes heartbreaking glimpse into what it would be like to live at the Hotel Albatross.

Genres: Fiction

276 pages, Paperback

First published May 1, 2009

About the author

Debra Adelaide has worked as a researcher, editor, and book reviewer, and has a PhD from the University of Sydney. She is presently a senior lecturer in creative writing at the University of Technology, Sydney, where she lives with her husband and three children.

See also http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Debra_Ad...

Reviews

[Josie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Having already read her other novel "Household Guide to Dying", I was eager to read more of this author.
I found this novel to be a fun read that rings true to anyone with experience of working in hospitality.
I enjoyed the writing style, and the narrative was upbeat and fresh. That said, it was not exactly earth shattering fiction, simply a quick and easy, almost chick-lit read.

[Gillian RB · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the jacket blurb from the Vintage edition, published in 1995. Goodreads will not let me add it, for some reason: "A Year in Provence meets Fawlty Towers in an Australian country town. The Hotel Albatross is the story of two people who, by unhappy chance, become the managers of a massive country hotel. Accompanied by a gallery of unlikely characters, the narrator takes the reader on a journey that covers territory both familiar and unknown. Debra Adelaide's vivid, blackly humorous account of an amusing investment gone wrong mingles sharp, sometimes scathing, vignettes of small town life with affection for the many eccentric characters who move in and out of the strange and manic world of the hotel. A Great Australian story, The Hotel Albatross will send you rolling down memory lane, tug at your heart strings and leave you full of the warmth and delight that all good stories bring." This book is well written, with short chapters of different stories about the manager's experience of being an hotelier. But unlike the jacket blurb, I did not find it warm and delightful. I found it poignant and sad, mostly, with the occasional funny anecdote.

[Sheridan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the riotously funny book the blurb promised, but I did chuckle sometimes. Ended suddenly - might’ve a bit more Fi ishing off.

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some poetic moments interspersed with descriptions of drudgery.

[Tim Corke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hotel Adelaide creates the feeling of small old town Australia with its regular scene of drinking characters with a realistic ease that verges on worrying. It feels as the author has spent time in the same close quarters as the setting.

It brilliantly describes a decaying hotel and bar scene with the belligerent regulars, relentless manual tasks and lack of gratitude and the constant feeling of stagnation.

The chapters focus on various activities, experiences and characters and how the workforce battle against each one until enough becomes enough.

Not the greatest literary read but superbly descriptive to pull you into the world of Hotel Albatross.

[Nicholas George · Rating 3 out of 5]

A deceptively slight book about a couple's experience running a hotel in rural Australia. It is a collection of vignettes more than a novel with a clear plot. The town's quirky inhabitants and hotel guests are vividly drawn, and you can sympathize with the often frustrating plight of the the hotel owners, even though much of it sounds oddly enticing.

[Renee Stokes]

Bit depressing!

[Saleh MoonWalker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Onvan : Hotel Albatross - Nevisande : Debra Adelaide - ISBN : 91830931 - ISBN13 : 9780091830939 - Dar 276 Safhe - Saal e Chap : 2009