A generational saga that chronicles the legacy of the Sikorskys—Jewish émigrés from Eastern Europe—across the span of four generations as they grapple with the aftermath of a dark secret in the declining grandeur of the family’s Catskills hotel.
Gothic literature — with its depictions of doomed aristocrats and centuries-old family estates — is predominantly non-Jewish. In The Hotel Neversink...Adam O’Fallon Price upends the tropes of the genre by placing them in an intrinsically Jewish setting: the Catskills ... As in traditional Gothic literature, the threat of the uncanny lingers throughout the novel. But O’Fallon Price also masterfully evokes historical detail, and this blend of sensationalism and realism allows him to question the class and gender assumptions that underpin Gothic fiction — as well as Jews’ place in literary genres usually closed off to them.
The Hotel Neversink is a historical microcosm, a family saga, and literary mystery—all elements that work together to engrossing effect ... In its focus on the personalities that keep the hotel going, Price’s novel is riveting and sensitive. Their foibles and fears, dramas and dreams propel the book’s pages. Though their Judaism sometimes feels filtered, it dictates their persistence, and it’s no minor feat that third-generation Len remains devout in an area that isn’t a flourishing Jewish center—at least, not in the hotel’s lean years. As much about a place as it is about a people, The Hotel Neversink is worth checking into—so long as you lock your door tight.
...a [roomy] and...ambitious affair, packing in a large cast, encompassing 100 years of family history and juggling a variety of narrative styles, genres and registers. Price takes big risks that allow him to perform dizzying feats ... Despite a grisly discovery and the odd spooky presentiment, The Hotel Neversink is not as creepy as it should be. But what it lacks in chills it more than makes up for in gripping family drama and masterful storytelling.
