Review: Hotel Iris

Hotel Iris by Yōko Ogawa
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I see some people compared this book to Lolita, although I guess it would be more fair to compare it to Duras’ “The Lover”.

However, “The Lover” was autobiographical. As far as I can tell, this is not, and it frankly comes off as sensationalist. A 60-something year old sexual aggressor repeatedly r*pes a 17 year old, and she naively longs for it, and for him. She ends up hooking up with another boy closer to her age (and the aggressor ‘punishes’ her for this) and there is S&M in the mix too. I guess much of this is due to the lack of a father and an overbearing mother? Not sure. What I do know is that this book was a disappointment after having read “The Housekeeper and the Professor”, as well as “Revenge”, which were both superb in their own way.

2 stars



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