Watching an early silent [film] can feel like peering into another person’s dream. Smith captures that spirit, and more, in The Electric Hotel, a vital and highly entertaining work about the act of creation, and about what it means to pick up and move on after you’ve lost everything ... With The Electric Hotel, Smith...puts a human face on the details of early film history. In Claude, he gives us a character who’s alive to the ways in which celluloid can capture flashes of life and depths of feeling. But Claude is also susceptible to the tragedy of love ... Claude Ballard and Sabine Montrose’s Electric Hotel lives, sadly, only within the pages of this novel ... and yet so vivid we can imagine every frame, tiger and all.
Dominic Smith’s engaging new novel, The Electric Hotel, offers a deep dive into the history of early cinema ... the joy in The Electric Hotel is in the getting there: the travels from Paris to New York at the very birth of cinema, the repeated run-ins with a litigious Thomas Edison and Ballard’s return to Europe amid the scarring battlefields of World War I. Though an extended set piece in war-ravished Belgium feels like a slight misstep, the novel quickly gets back on track as Ballard and Embry plan for a rerelease of the restored classic. Smith skillfully blends film history with the adventures of his intriguing crew, never losing sight of their individuality. The Electric Hotel enchants with a compelling plot but satisfies with the fully felt pathos of its characters.
Smith tries to cover too much territory, but Ballard is finely rendered, and there are quite a few edge-of-your-seat moments. Recommended to fans of Graham Moore's The Last Days of Night and Amor Towles's The Gentleman from Moscow.
Smith has the historical grounding of E.L. Doctorow, the character discernment of Alice McDermott and the bold whimsy of Mark Helprin. He is a writer of elegance, rich imagination and propulsive plotting ... themes are spooled through an irresistible and dizzying international tale of early cinema ... Smith manages to pack so much story and layer such rich characters into this generous but disciplined narrative because of his rare gift for poetic concision ... Let others bake in the sun with their thrillers. Hide in the shade with Smith, instead, and emerge at dusk with a quickened literary metabolism and an enigmatic smile.
The atmosphere is convincing as Smith transports readers to fin de siècle New Jersey, the sick room of a tubercular widow, and Belgium in the throes of WWI. The depth and breadth of the characterization is truly impressive, the story line immersive, and the prose richly evocative as the novel ranges from tragic to nail-biting to hilarious. Smith’s tale is as luminous as celluloid projected on a silver screen hung from a dirigible floating over the Hudson (yes, this happens). Highly recommended.
...we get a wonderfully vivid re-creation of the spell cast by the earliest films ... Smith skillfully blends film history with the adventures of his cast ... The novel climaxes with a brilliantly detailed account of the filming of The Electric Hotel and its triumphant premiere, followed by multiple blows that have been deftly foreshadowed. The account of Claude’s traumatic experiences filming the devastation of World War I is something of a letdown, but a final scene with Sabine ties up emotional loose ends, and Martin’s screening of the restored Electric Hotel provides a moving finale. A compelling plot, robust characters, and finely crafted prose richly evoke a bygone age and art.
...splendid ... Claude’s own story—and those of the leading lady, stuntman, and impresario who collaborated with him—unfolds as cinematically as the scenes he creates on film. Fascinating information about the making of silent films (including a villainous cameo by Thomas Edison) is balanced by poignant, emotional portrayals of individuals attempting to define their lives offscreen even as they made history on it. Smith winningly delves into Hollywood’s past.