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Hotel Honolulu: A Novel | 
 enlarge | Author: Paul Theroux
Publisher: Mariner Books
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy Used: $0.01
You Save: $13.99 (100%)
New (41) Used (93) Collectible (3) from $0.01
Rating:  47 reviews
Sales Rank: 338803
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 432
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.9
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.4 x 1
ISBN: 0618219153
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
UPC: 046442219150
EAN: 9780618219155
ASIN: 0618219153
Publication Date: May 15, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Some wear on book from reading, spine creases, wear on binding and pages.
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Product Description
In this wickedly satiric romp, Paul Theroux captures the essence of Hawaii as it has never been depicted. The novel's narrator, a down-on-his-luck writer, escapes to Waikiki and soon finds himself the manager of the Hotel Honolulu, a low-rent establishment a few blocks off the beach. Honeymooners, vacationers, wanderers, mythomaniacs, soldiers, and families all check in to the hotel. Like the Canterbury pilgrims, every guest has come in search of something -- sun, love, happiness, objects of unnameable longing -- and everyone has a story. By turns hilarious, ribald, tender, and tragic, HOTEL HONOLULU offers a unique glimpse of the psychological landscape of an American paradise.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 42 more reviews...
 Hawaii Unfiltered December 20, 2008
Incredibly entertaining book to read. Like many mainlanders, I moved to Hawaii after a great vacation and can completely relate to the book's observations - it is unfiltered Hawaii. It is also purely un-PC, but that is part of what makes it a real article. Will definitely search out more from Theroux!
Odd and Compelling May 12, 2008
I read every word of this book. Theroux's writing skill is incredible. Half the reason I enjoyed this book was just marveling at how he can write. Although not a pleasant, feel good novel, it is a compelling portrait of life. It also brought back memories of my visits to Honolulu.
Brilliantly entertaining in a Hawaiian way March 20, 2008
I've visited Hawaii a dozen times in the past few years, and it took me a while to understand the language of the locals, their perceptions on life, and their sense of humor. This book captures a side of Hawaii that people don't get to see intimately unless they've been there long enough: it's a place where some people just "end up". Paul Theroux relates this side of the island life to us through a mainland howlie who ends up in Honolulu somehow and lands a gig as a hotel manager. This book explores the shadier side of the island in a humorous (albeit crude) fashion. I thoroughly enjoyed this book because of the familiar voices that speak within it (not to mention his wicked sense of humor)! Not for those easily offended.
 Just quirky enough to be entertaining November 12, 2006
This story seems to be set in somewhat a modern Hawaii setting. Actually it is kind of like a whole bunch a stories; which is strung all together by the main character (the hotel manager). Since the author is haole, it is appropriate that his character is the under achieving hotel manager. The whole time I read it I just pictured the old Blaisdel Hotel on Fort Street. Some of the local characters seemed a little shallow, but if you can imagine Honolulu in the late sixties you might like this book.
Connecting the Disconnected April 1, 2006
I was going to give this novel four stars but, after reading the bad reviews and feeling how badly they've missed what makes this a great Theroux novel, I'm going to go ahead and give it five stars.
(My memories of other Theroux works is my sole motivation for taking a star off anyway).
Yes, there isn't a clearly-defined plot in HOTEL HONOLULU but the transient lives and lifestyles of the people who end up on that "rock in the middle of water" form a story that feels like a single entity. The characters are bold and vivid. Nothing whitewashed here: old white men rant about the Hawaiians and Asian women and vice versa.
Another wonderful quality about Theroux's writing is that he goes to remote and exotic locations and brings back a reality we've never seen, whether it's the South Sea islands or the dirt roads of Mongolia or the frozen train stations of Siberia...or America's paradise, Hawaii.
Bravo, Paul!
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