Hotels of North America

Rick Moody — 2015

From the acclaimed Rick Moody, a darkly comic portrait of a man who comes to life in the most unexpected of ways: through his online reviews. Reginald Edward Morse is one of the top reviewers on RateYourLodging.com, where his many reviews reveal more than just details of hotels around the globe--they tell his life story. The puzzle of Reginald's life comes together through reviews that comment upon his motivational speaking career, the dissolution of his marriage, the separation from his beloved daughter, and his devotion to an amour known only as "K." But when Reginald disappears, we are left with the fragments of a life--or at least the life he has carefully constructed--which writer Rick Moody must make sense of. An inventive blurring of the lines between the real and the fabricated, Hotels of North America demonstrates Moody's mastery ability to push the bounds of the novel.

Reviews

Cindy Lieberman@chicindy

Mar 26, 2022

This high-concept novel purports to be a collection of hotel reviews submitted by the peripatetic author R. E. Morse. They begin both innocently and darkly comic. After more of the same the confection becomes a bit dry. Refresh yourself, dear reader, from the minibar and resume your nibbling. You will be glad you did, for this is no pre-packaged, assembly-line pastry. It is a prison cake. At its heart is a well-honed shiv that drew tears, if not blood, from this reviewer. Several of the hotel "review" subjects (children, home, meditation) were so lyrical they had to be savored by reading over and again. This went on for a couple of days. I dare say the novel will stay with me for much longer.