The Biedermeier Hotel can no longer afford the continental breakfast its residents have depended upon since 1929. Mrs. Mossler, the hotel director, has already cut lunch service and reduced dinner to a self-serve buffet, and someone has almost certainly stolen her pinking shears. Residents Katherine, Lucianne, Pauline, Kitty, Gia, Patricia, and Carol, along with Stephen, the daytime elevator operator, must decide whether to meet this crisis by practicing economy, cooperation, or theft; so far, theft is winning.
A gently humorous episodic work ... While Lavery’s witty, at times flippant tone encourages such a casual approach, reading each chapter as its own character sketch could undermine the subtle connections underlying even the lightest parts of this debut ... [A] little jewel of a novel.
The ensuing vignettes set within the walls of the Biedermeier feel at times like an elaborate social experiment, at others like a piece of performance art ... The gimmick was not off-putting to this reader...but in a time when allegory lurks behind every plot twist, I was braced for a heavy-handed message ... A book written because it was exactly what the author wanted to read. There is a delicious, low-key madness to this project, but Women’s Hotel is undertaken with such gusto — and, frequently, such skill — that the reader has no choice but to surrender ... The prose sometimes becomes a touch labored, the droll omniscient narrator too knowing ... What the arch comedy-of-manners format sacrifices in terms of character depth, Lavery compensates for with affection.
A charmer ... Unfolds in a series of comic and sometimes deeply poignant vignettes built around one or another Biedermeier resident. Contained within each profile is rich social and political history ... Mr. Lavery’s wit and descriptive powers are considerable, his affection and sympathy for his characters something more. Even without that first important meal of the day, Women’s Hotel is a feast.
