The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel: A review
The story begins in 1999 at a luxury hotel in British Columbia. A woman with the unusual (for a woman) name Vincent is the bartender there. She is young and beautiful. Her half-brother Paul also works at the hotel. Paul had been a bit of a loser in life so far and Vincent had interceded to get him the job there. Fabulously wealthy financier Jonathan Alkaitis owns the hotel. On a day that Alkaitis comes to visit the hotel, a sentence etched in acid appears on its large glass window. The sentence says, "Why don't you swallow broken glass." It isn't clear who wrote the message, but we eventually learn that it was Paul, at the behest of another guest at the hotel. The message was apparently meant for Alkaitis. Alkaitis, who is described as looking a bit like Santa Claus, is smitten with Vincent and he makes her an offer she can't refuse. She is to live and travel with him in the role of his trophy wife. She leaves with him and spends the next several years living a l...