The setting of the novel is The Hotel Miraflor, standing in for any Central American country, most likely Guatemala.

The story has misfits, or rather eccentric people, for its characters: the lady matador Suki Palacios, a Korean businessman, an inscrupulous adoption lawyer with connections in the police and the government, an unhappy poet with a spoiled rich wife, a former guerilla fighter who now works as a hotel maid, a right wing colonel.

Each character's story is told separately although the characters have dealings with each other. All characters have a dark side, and they are sexy, witty, tragic, and emotion driven.

Some of the characters are wonderfully developed, but others are left to stay as cartoon figures, but they all search for something or other in their own style.

The ending is a shocker (for me). All the story lines come to a sudden stop with their loose ends hanging. It is as if one peeped inside through the door of the hotel, viewed who was there, then closed the door.

as if Garcia shoved the literary genre around in a brusque way.

Cristina García is the author of five novels: Dreaming in Cuban, The Agüero Sisters, Monkey Hunting, A Handbook to Luck, and The Lady Matador's Hotel.

I like Garcia's writing, although this book I like the least, but the story is good enough in weird sort of way. Still, read it at your own risk since you may not make peace with its ending.

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Created Sep 26, 2011 at 4:37pm • Submit your own review...