Hotel Living

Sometimes I have to do a blog post in addition to a Goodreads update when I read a book that I think deserves some extra attention. That book today is Hotel Living by Ioannis Pappos. Ever since I finished this book a few days ago, I can't stop thinking about it. It's the story of a Greek immigrant who completes an MBA at a European school, works for some management consulting firm in the US, and has an on-again/off-again relationship for years with a WASP who does humanitarian-like work. It's about class, money, sexual fluidity. Based on the author's bio, I suspect some of this material is autobiographical. What I really enjoyed about the book was the relationship between the main character, Stathis, and his WASP boyfriend Erik. There's a lot going on between these two and their scenes together were fascinating to me. (Erik often refers to Stathis as Feta in the book. How cute is that? He could have called him Gyro and I would have found it equally adorable.) The book veers off into Bret Easton Ellis territory later with tales of drugs, models, parties, unfortunately. As someone who read BEE's stuff when I was younger, I could deal with it, but I didn't necessarily want to see it in this book.

I got a sample of Hotel Living on my Kindle, but decided against buying it because it didn't immediately draw me in. Then, about a week later, I saw the book at my local library and checked it out and read it. I loved it so much that I ended up going back and buying the Kindle version so I could have the book for myself. I look forward to reading more work from Pappos. This was his first novel and I'm sure he'll put out another one. He seems to be very well connected in the NY literary scene. Hell, he's got blurbs from Michael Cunningham and Edmund White! I doubt he'll have trouble getting a deal for a second book. I'm sure he has one already.