Leaving Small's Hotel

by Eric Kraft

Book Overview

For two decades, the novels of Eric Kraft have brought joy to a small but loyal readership. Now, in Leaving Small's Hotel, his reach has broadened: This is a story that will entrance everyone.Small's... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0312186894
• ISBN13: 9780312186890
• Release Date: May 1998
• Publisher: Picador USA
• Length: 346 Pages
• Weight: 1.12 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 5.9" x 8.6"

Customer Reviews

An exquisite and unique experience

Eric Karft has created a world that a reader can experience in various layers. Ach! Why try to compete with Mr. Kraft? His analogy of his books is that of a robust, zesty clam chowder. Do endulge yourself. You will be reading along, following the adventures of Peter Leroy, thinking this is perhaps a mild diversion of a book when a startling insight floats up on the page, or a trenchant observation astounds and delights you. I read this book a year ago (I got it as soon as it came out in May, 98 as I am A BIG Eric Kraft fan) and still think of it at least weekly. I anxiously await the next offering from Mr. Kraft, who brightens my world and spirit immeasurably through his work.

Another enjoyable read from the Balzac of our time.

Peter Leroy does it again in this tale of the last days of Small's Hotel. As Peter tries to save the failing inn, he creates a theme event to draw more guests to the hotel. This event, a series of nightly readings, is the far greater feast for Kraft fans. Each story is another chapter in the "personal history, adventures, experiences, & observations of Peter Leroy (so far)." And each perfectly captures the suspension of disbelief of childhood, the mixture of fantasy and reality (in the moment and the memory). For readers, especially between 40 and 65, perfect moments of insight and beauty are to be found within these small tales. The new adventures, along with all of Kraft's works, are to be savored on sunny late afternoons when time permits idle nostalgia of our post-war youth.

leaving the past, but where is his future?

The diminished role of Peter Leroy the child in the novel may have become necessary as he reaches age thirteen and his departure from Babbington and the 50's nears. This lesser role is perhaps a welcome relief for those who have read all of his novels, but the peter leroy left seems redundant. The leaving of Small's Island, if I may indulge in prediction, hints at the exhaustion of the character of peter leroy, at least as far as his being is so intricately tied to his surroundings, and perhaps Kraft's desire to move on. Will he forego the character in the sequal to this amazing book? In its tone and mood I sense an affinity with Delillo's Mao II. kent strock

An intelligent, compassionate, funny book.

Peter Leroy writes his life story in an attic study as his wife Albertine renovates a quiet hotel on an island in Bolotomy Bay. When Small's Hotel starts to fail, Peter questions the value of literature in our time as well. Hotel guests want to ride jet skies, and editors want more sex and violence in the adventure books Peter writes for boys. Thus, "leaving Small's Hotel" is Eric Kraft's profound exploration of the viability of the imagination in a world that's lost all sense of proportion. That's our world, of course, and we need to learn from this intelligent, compassionate, funny book.

Funny, charming, and brilliant

Follow me on this: Eric Kraft is a real person. He has created a fictional character called Peter Leroy. Peter Leroy narrates the Peter Leroy novels. But, as far as Peter is considered, these are works of fiction -- sort of. He is telling his life story, but he's embellishing here and there, and reworking certain elements. And he tells us what's real and what isn't. Through this conceit (though by no means solely because of it), Kraft creates what one reviewer called "serious fiction that's fun to read." If Garrison Keilor was a true genius, he'd be Eric Kraft. LEAVING SMALL'S HOTEL is the latest in Peter's saga, and -- like all the others -- it's nostalgic and wise and funny and deep. Nobody else does what Kraft does. Read him.