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The Lonely Hearts Hotel: A Novel
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The Lonely Hearts Hotel: A Novel
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The Lonely Hearts Hotel: A Novel
Audiobook12 hours

The Lonely Hearts Hotel: A Novel

Written by Heather O'Neill

Narrated by Julia Whelan

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

4/5

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Currently unavailable

Currently unavailable

About this audiobook

The Lonely Hearts Hotel is a love story with the power of legend. An unparalleled tale of charismatic pianos, invisible dance partners, radicalized chorus girls, drug-addicted musicians, brooding clowns, and an underworld whose economy hinges on the price of a kiss. In a landscape like this, it takes great creative gifts to thwart one's origins. It might also take true love.

Two babies are abandoned in a Montreal orphanage in the winter of 1914. Before long, their talents emerge: Pierrot is a piano prodigy; Rose lights up even the dreariest room with her dancing and comedy. As they travel around the city performing clown routines, the children fall in love with each other and dream up a plan for the most extraordinary and seductive circus show the world has ever seen. 

Separated as teenagers, sent off to work as servants during the Great Depression, both descend into the city's underworld, dabbling in sex, drugs and theft in order to survive. But when Rose and Pierrot finally reunite beneath the snowflakes - after years of searching and desperate poverty - the possibilities of their childhood dreams are renewed, and they'll go to extreme lengths to make them come true. Soon, Rose, Pierrot and their troupe of clowns and chorus girls have hit New York, commanding the stage as well as the alleys, and neither the theater nor the underworld will ever look the same.

With her musical language and extravagantly realized world, Heather O'Neill enchants us with a novel so magical there is no escaping its spell.

LanguageEnglish
Release dateFeb 7, 2017
ISBN9781524749637
Unavailable
The Lonely Hearts Hotel: A Novel
Author

Heather O'Neill

HEATHER O’NEILL is a novelist, short-story writer and essayist. Her most recent novel, When We Lost Our Heads, was a #1 national bestseller and a finalist for the Grand Prix du Livre de Montréal. Her previous works include The Lonely Hearts Hotel, which won the Paragraphe Hugh MacLennan Prize for Fiction and was longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction and CBC’s Canada Reads, as well as Lullabies for Little Criminals, The Girl Who Was Saturday Night and Daydreams of Angels, which were shortlisted for the Governor General’s Literary Award for Fiction, the Orange Prize for Fiction and the Scotiabank Giller Prize two years in a row. O’Neill has also won CBC’s Canada Reads and the Danuta Gleed Award. Born and raised in Montreal, she lives there today.

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Reviews for The Lonely Hearts Hotel

Rating: 3.7971014942028978 out of 5 stars
4/5

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  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This is an Amazon Vine Free Book Review.

    I'm reviewing The Lonely Hearts Hotel: the Bailey's Prize longlisted novel
    by Heather O'Neill. Here are my thoughts:

    ^^ Young Rose and Pierrot first meet at an orphanage where they're cruelly treated. Despite this, they grow very close, and realise they've something special between them; a bond so intuitive they can practically live together in a world of their own. Between them, their imaginations are a world away from the cruel one they live in.

    ^^ Seeing their closeness, the wicked nuns at the orphanage force Rose and Pierrot apart. When they meet again, older and wiser, their lives have been riddled with so much tragedy, you just know it's never going to end well. Or does it? Only you can be the judge of that.

    ^^ This is a strange, magical story set in the roaring twenties, which I found disturbingly haunting. I will not forget in a hurry, I can tell you!

    ^^ It's not all doom and gloom though, there are moments where this whimsical story will have you smiling. However, be warned, it also holds a darkness which will surprise and maybe shock you. Much of what you read on the surface cuts much deeper, proving that beneath the shadows of tragedy, love can still flourish.

    ^^ It's a magical story of love and heartbreak, which holds a great deal of pain and misfortune within. It's not the happiest of reads, but it is beautifully written and very clever. At time s, I did find the subject matter a bit off-putting, but this is clearly the author's intention. The more I thought about it, the more I admired the author's bravery, and of course, writing skills.

    ^^ Although it's not a roller-coaster of a novel in an action packed sense, I found it addictive. I needed to know how it ended. I haven't read anything so grim, yet so intriguing, in ages.

    Overall: The Lonely Hearts hotel read very much like a Grimm fairy-tale, where subjects tackled are often gruesome and out of many people's comfort zone, yet cleverly disguised as a child's fairy-tale, where a happy ending is no longer obligatory.

    Not for children.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Two children abandoned at birth were raised together in a Montreal orphanage run by nuns who inflicted appalling abuse and saw the children as evidence of sin. The boy, named Pierrot for his pale skin, and the girl Rose for her red cheeks vow to stay together. The names suggest that the story is based on commedia dell'arte a traditional theatrical style, with artistes who performed for rich patrons, like the two children did. O'Neill conveys the style in many ways: masks or hidden identities, the comic opera, the tirades and abuses reminiscent of Punch and Judy. Although this is an even darker concept than any of The Brothers Grimm characters it is in fact a fairy tale love story. Unsettling, unpleasant, yet clever in a dark bleak way. I appreciated O'Neill's talent but can't say I enjoyed this one.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    2.5 starsRose and Pierrot grew up at the same orphanage in Montreal, where they performed for rich people to raise money, once Pierrot’s piano-playing talent and Rose’s dancing talent was discovered. While at the orphanage, despite abuse at the hands of the nuns, they fall in love. As they grow older, however, they are separated and spend their lives trying to dig their way out of poverty and pining for each other. Not a fan. I listened to the audio and the narrator was good, but it wasn’t enough. I thought, at the start, I was going to like it, but it didn’t turn out that way. I didn’t like any of the characters, and I didn’t care about what happened to them (except when they were young and still at the orphanage). Disappointing, especially since I really liked “Lullabies for Little Criminals” by this author.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    I'm a fan of Heather O'Neill's but I might be hard pressed to say what it is I like about her writing. Then, while googling for information about her, I found a National Post review written by Michael Melgaard of a different book in which he expressed what I lacked the ability to say. "This collection, like all of her work, is filled with humour, moments of joy, sudden bursts of deep emotion and heartbreaking sincerity." Rose and Pierrot were raised in a Montreal orphanage run by nuns. Pierrot is a musical genius and Rose is theatrical. They are paired up as a performing duo for the rich people of Montreal and soon are deeply in love. Of course, love does not run smoothly. Pierrot is singled out by Sister Eloise for sexual abuse and she becomes jealous of Pierrot's interest in Rose. Rose is sent off as a governess/nanny to the children of a wealthy Montreal gangster and Pierrot becomes the ward of wealthy Westmount man who heard Pierrot play when he came to the orphanage to drop off money. Thus the two are separated for many years with each becoming entangled with other lovers. When Pierrot's benefactor dies he is thrown out of the house and becomes addicted to heroin. Rose became the mistress of the Montreal gangster until she decides she has to get away from him. Although both are living in Montreal they don't meet until both decide to look for the other and eventually find one another. They form the performing group they dreamed of as children and go to New York to play, to great acclaim, on Broadway. However the only way they could afford to do this was to agree to transport drugs for Rose's former lover who is exceedingly jealous of Pierrot. He decides that if he can't have Rose no one else is going to either. He contracts with the New York gangsters receiving the drugs to kill Rose as part of the payment. Rose is a smart cookie and figures out a way to turn the situation to her advantage but in doing so she ignores Pierrot who returns to the drug addiction that he had kicked for Rose. I confess to feeling cross with Rose and also with Pierrot but the ending redeems all.The Globe and Mail review of this book ended by saying that O'Neill just gets better and better and I would agree.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    two extra ordinary orphans are separated by life events and then find each other again to start their own circus/hotel with their incredible abilities.
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    Such an odd book that I don't know after finishing it if I like it or not. The early part of the childhood of Rose and Pierrot seemed to go on to long. Then at times I liked them both so much but as the novel progresses, I liked them less.I think we are suppose to be confused by these two characters as each of their endings are quite sad. Like their lives were. I did like the Montreal vibe in the book and life in downtown Montreal during the Depression and prior to WWll.The style of writing was interesting too with short , choppy sentences almost childlike.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Loved this book!
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    This book was equal parts magic and tragedy, with the end result being a truly unforgettable read. *ALL* the trigger warnings, so reader beware - this one is hard to recommend exactly, but I will certainly not forget my time in Rose and Pierrot's world.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Take The Night Circus. Subtract the fantastical elements. Subtract the vivid descriptions. Make the writing style more precious. Add some truly horrific content. And you'll wind up with this book.

    I normally like books that make me cringe, but this one crosses a line for me, and something about the weird juxtaposition of the narrative voice and the content just makes it worse. A quaint sort of writing style that describes child rape and abuse? No thank you.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    So weird yet brilliant! The book is full of the paradoxes it celebrates. Matter of factly discussing sexual encounters, poverty, loneliness, crime and corruption. The subject matter is disturbing but the book carries along without dwelling on it. Sex and its disparity of power and love and meaninglessness and bonds, love and obsession, power struggles for women who had nothing, roaring twenties into Great Depression. I couldn't read it but I couldn't put it down! This book is not a romance but it is a love story. It might appear to be a beach read but it is crammed with symbolism and themes and motifs and insight on life. It is too much to say I loved it, but I admire it immensely and think it deserves critical acclaim for its ingenuity and writing.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    As children growing up in an orphanage, Rose and Pierrot share a love for music. They are paraded around to show off their talents at the homes of wealthy people by the greedy nuns. This begins their life in the circus. They are separated as teenagers, but find each other again in their despair in the sleazy underworld of the city. They join again to take the circus to the big city, New York. It is a bitter love story but a fantastic read. My thanks to the author and the Penguin First to Read program for a complimentary book.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    Reminiscent of (but not quite as spectacular as) the Night Circus, this novel set during the Great Depression in Montreal follows two orphaned child whose destines are intertwined. Their stories didn't quite come together in the way I expected, but I nevertheless enjoyed every minute of this book - especially Rose's transformation into a very different kind of character. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who loves the Night Circus.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    If you like words...you will love this book. If you like love stories...you will love this book. If you like tragedies...you will love this book. I'm so sad it's over! Read this one.
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    Really, really but my type of book! I strongly disliked the writing style, it annoyed me to no end. I would have never finished it is it hadn't been for my book club. I ended up giving it 2 stars because it picks up at the end, and my book club managed to convince me there were some interesting elements. But it was really not my cup of tea : it tried too hard to be whimsy and there were way too many similes (so many, omg!!).
  • Rating: 3 out of 5 stars
    3/5
    I really wanted to love this as much as I loved Lullabies for Little Criminals but I just didn't. It seemed unnecessarily long and wow, the non-stop metaphors kind of wore me out. For whatever reason, I couldn't give up on it though I'm not sure it was worth it in the end.
  • Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
    4/5
    "If we all knew that we were all perverts, we might all be a lot happier." This book was bizarre and fantastical and ludicrous all at once, but I really liked it? I really liked it.I must warn future readers of the excessive amount of sexual content there is in this novel. The very opening scene on the first page describes the incestuous rape of a child, who then bears a child from that assault.And so we follow the lives of two French-Canadian children in the very early 20th century through their adulthood, their fates seemingly already written for them just by the caliber of their parents and their upbringing in an abusive orphanage—abusive in every sense of the word. But one’s beginnings are not necessarily a permanent foretelling of one’s future. Terrible things can happen to good people, but it doesn’t always mean that they are glued to terrible circumstances.In their own ways, Rose and Pierrot overcome their tragic childhoods and in some ways they never recover from them. They experience absolutely wild events, sometimes upsetting, but always attention-holding. From being exploited by the nuns as children to perform for rich families in Montreal, to heroin addiction, working in brothels for survival and disposing of three prematurely-born babies in the crudest of fashions. (*Stefan voice*: This book has it all.)This book is absolutely nuts, but it was written in a way that I had a hard time putting it down. The sentences are short and sweet and powerful. (I could use a lesson or two.)The author is a little bit of a magician; she writes these metaphors that are incredibly far-fetched yet simultaneously spot-on and beautiful. It’s such an odd dichotomy, and at first I found it off-putting, but I ended up loving her descriptions and looking forward to what she would come up with next.The ending is fantastic. Left me with the biggest smile on my face.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    This is going to be one of those reviews where I gush nonsensically because I don’t want to give away too much of the plot. The Lonely Hearts Hotel is a cross between a film noir and a fairy tale. It’s an odd combination but it works beautifully in this case.Rose and Pierrot grew up in an orphanage together where life was miserable and they were both abused. It became somewhat better when the nuns discovered that they were each child prodigies in their own way. Pierrot was a master pianist and Rose a gifted performer and dancer. They started performing together for patrons of the orphanage to wild success. However, when they started to get too close to each other, they were shipped out to separate benefactors and lost touch.More than once, when I thought the characters were going down a particular path, they chose a different one – sometimes for the good and sometimes not. But I never stopped rooting for them. Rose and Pierrot were both complex and utterly likeable even though they were deeply flawed. O’Neill’s light tone and beautiful prose kept what could have been a very depressing story from getting too heavy. I hope the author’s previous books are this good. I want to read them all now. I highly recommend The Lonely Hearts Hotel.
  • Rating: 5 out of 5 stars
    5/5
    Set in the time of the 1920s and 1930s this book begins with the birth of two children who as babies are placed in the orphanage in Montreal. At this orphanage, all the children are given the name Mary or Joseph, though to counter confusion the children have nicknames. The girl is Rose and the boy is Pierrot. As soon as they meet as young children they seem to hit it off. But at the orphanage friendships between girls and boys are discouraged because they can lead to romances later in life which can lead to more babies. So the two are kept far apart.Life in the orphanage is hard. They are not treated with any kind of love or kindness. Sometimes the nuns hit them for no real reason at all. Rose is often locked up in the closet for hours at a time, or even on occasion days. Pierrot becomes protected by a young nun named Eloise who molests him. He feels guilty about the protection and guilty and confused about the sexual acts happening between them. He doesn't know how to tell her no. Then one day Pierrot who is a self-taught piano player sits down to play a song he made up during dinner and Rose begins to dance to it and the two notice each other again. Pierrot seeks her out and at the Christmas concert for the public Pierrot begins to play his song and Rose sneaks on stage to dance. The two are a hit. Donors to the orphanage want these two to come to their house to perform and they will pay handsomely for it. So the Mother Superior agrees to it because the orphanage needs the money. Eloise, however, is not happy about this. She is burning up with jealousy. Pierrot ends up having sex with her and promising to marry her to get her to calm down. But he says they won't do anything else until they are married. Rose and Pierrot's act is a smash around town. This is when Rose writes down a plan she has for "The Snowflake Icicle Extravaganza". It's an act she plans to put on stage using their talents and others and make a lot of money doing it. But the happiness between the two cannot last. A rich old man decides that he wants to adopt Pierrot because he loves his piano playing as it makes him happy and Eloise beats Rose so bad she winds up in the sick ward for weeks. Pierrot leaves a letter behind for her, but Eloise burns the letter and every other letter he mails to the orphanage from his new home. So Rose begins to believe that Pierrot has forgotten her and Pierrot believe the same thing about Rose since she doesn't return his letters, though he keeps sending them for years. Rose winds up working as a nanny for two wild children of a gangster and his wife who generally stays in bed all day. Rose is a wild as the children, but they keep her because she makes the children happy and because the wife doesn't believe she has anything to worry about with Rose and her husband. And years pass and the husband who is rarely at home is not someone who is interested in Rose or vice versa. Until they are. Then things become complicated. Pierrot, meanwhile, becomes screwed when the old man whom he had been taking care of dies, and his relatives who cared nothing for him sweep in and take everything, burning the new will that left a sum of money to Pierrot. Pierrot is trained to do nothing. He is heartbroken over the loss of the old man and runs into a prostitute named Poppy who tells him he can get a job at a theater as an usher. She also gets him hooked on heroin. At this theater, they still have a piano at the front from when they showed silent pictures and Pierrot asks if he can play it during intermissions and they let him and everyone is amazed by his playing. Soon no one is leaving their seats during intermission. Of course, he uses all of his pay to get high. Both of them are searching for the other one and just barely miss catching them. But their love is strong and they will keep on trying. And Rose hasn't given up on her Icicle Extravaganza dream. Life has always been hard for the two of them, but they are survivors. This book is so beautifully written. Some examples: "The soft sound of the rain on the rooftop sounded like young girls sneaking off in stockings to elope.""The waves made a sound of someone biting into an apple. When they crashed, they were a hundred thousand chorus girls raising up their dresses at once. And then the water receded again like the train of a jilted bride walking off into the distance." There's a bit of sadness to this book as Rose and Pierrot cannot seem to find each other and their lives without each other are rather unhappy. But give it a moment before you throw the book against your wall. I'm not saying this book has a happy ending. I'm not saying it doesn't. It has the ending it is meant to have. I truly loved this book and I believe you will too. QuotesIf there was one thing responsible for ruining lives, it was love.-Heather O’Neill (The Lonely Hearts Hotel p 10)A young girl’s body is the most dangerous place in the world, as it is the spot where violence is most likely to be enacted.-Heather O’Neil (The Lonely Hearts Hotel p 28)Perhaps the most dangerous people in the world are the ones who believe in right and wrong but what they ascribe to as “right” and “wrong” is completely insane. They are bad with conviction that they are good. That idea is the impetus behind evil.-Heather O’Neil (The Lonely Hearts Hotel p 40)“I find that I can’t help being bad. I promise and promise and promise myself that I won’t be a bad person. But then I just do something bad.” “That’s because we’re girls. We’re supposed to only have emotions. We aren’t even allowed to have thoughts. And it’s fine to feel sad and happy and mad and in love—but those are just moods. Emotions can’t get anything done. An emotion is just a reaction. You don’t only want to be having reactions in this lifetime. You need to be having actions too, thoughtful actions.”-Heather O’Neil (The Lonely Hearts Hotel p 74)Being a woman was a trap. Something would bring you down before you turned twenty-three. The only time the world shows you any favor, or cuts you any slack, is during the very brief period of courtship where the world is trying to fuck you for the first time.-Heather O’Neil (The Lonely Hearts Hotel p 133)It’s sort of impossible to be absentminded and vacant and daydreamy during sex. You are either enjoying it intensely or you are in a state of high stress.-Heather O’Neil (The Lonely Hearts Hotel p 144)But although he was paying for her whole life, McMahon still wasn’t sure whether he truly possessed her. To make certain that he did, he tried to make Rose miserable. This was the only real proof that a woman belonged to you. Anybody could make a girl happy. It was only when a girl was in love with a man that he could ruin her self-esteem.-Heather O’Neil (The Lonely Hearts Hotel p 168)A girl’s desire is like a pretty butterfly. And a man’s desire is like a butterfly net. His desire captures and kills her. He turns her into an object to be pinned on a corkboard. I don’t think I’m interested in the tyranny of the couple. I’m more interested in what a person does when they’re forced to be by themselves.-Heather O’Neil (The Lonely Hearts Hotel p 200)Isn’t it an obvious fact that the pursuit of happiness always makes a person miserable. So do you think that if we went out of our way to look for things that made us miserable, we would find ourselves perfectly content in the end?-Heather O’Neil (The Lonely Hearts Hotel p 207)All fear is dependent on context.-Heather O’Neil (The Lonely Hearts Hotel p 209)Nothing can really happen when you are dreaming.-Heather O’Neil (The Lonely Hearts Hotel p 230)This Depression was deeply humiliating. Since women were taught that they were worthless, they took poverty and hardship less personally.-Heather O’Neil (The Lonely Hearts Hotel p 266)You couldn’t really achieve happiness as an adult. It was something that belonged to children. It was a fool’s errand to try to experience it as a grown-up. Once you were old, all you could do was make others happy, and that gave you some sense of fulfillment.-Heather O’Neil (The Lonely Hearts Hotel p 336)Childhood is such a perverse injustice, I don’t know how anyone survives it without going crazy.-Heather O’Neil (The Lonely Hearts Hotel p 343)That’s all you get in life—a childhood. And you get a mommy, and if you’re real lucky, you get a daddy. And that time is filled with all these feelings of love, even if you get the worst parents in the world. And then as an adult you always have to go around trying to find fake ways to get that feeling. You have to do the dirtiest, most lowlife things to find that feeling. That feeling is always in the most strangest of places.-Heather O’Neil (The Lonely Hearts Hotel p 347-8)Many of them, like him, would never grow old enough to understand that you only go from one hardship to another. And that the best we can hope from life is that it is a wonderful depression.-Heather O’Neil (The Lonely Hearts Hotel p 380)But there’s something eternally lovely about being a girl.-Heather O’Neil (The Lonely Hearts Hotel p 382)
  • Rating: 2 out of 5 stars
    2/5
    This story takes place in 1914. Rose and Pierrot are the children of poor, unwed teenagers and both end up at the same orphanage when they’re abandoned by their mothers. A strong bond develops between these two children as they face their loveless days with the nuns. The nuns are determined to keep Rose and Pierrot apart and to thwart their love and happiness in any way they can. But this is a love that can’t be beat down, even when Pierrot is sent to live with a wealthy man and Rose is sent to work as a governess.Rose and Pierrot are very imaginative characters and their journey through life is written much like a fairy tale, with dancing bears and magic at every turn. But it’s a truly tragic story, filled with child rape, child abuse, animal abuse, drugs, prostitution, etc., etc., etc. It’s very profane, blunt and sexually graphic, which I felt was done in a way that seemed to be specifically for shock effect, though I’ve read where others have thought it lyrical. The writing consists of far too many metaphors, though some of the metaphors are quite beautiful. On one hand, the book can be seen as a story of two entrancing characters trying their best to struggle through a depraved world. On the other hand, it’s just a perverted, tragic mess, with one atrocity following another. I just wanted the book to be over so I could escape the horrendous world created by the author.Sorry, but I can’t recommend this one. I was caught up in the comparison to “The Night Circus” but this is a much different type of book. This book was given to me by the publisher in return for an honest review.