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.
This is the blurb about this book, which led me to believe it would be a kind of off beat tale of eccentric circus type folks who live together and forge a family like existence despite great odds. This was not that book. It’s the story of Rose and Pierrot, two orphans who came into existence due to the rape/sexual assault of their respective teenage mothers. The book is set in Montreal, and begins in 1914 shortly before the babies are abandoned at the orphanage. These two children are very unique and don’t fit nicely into the mold that the nuns running the place are used to. They’re artistic and dreamy and end up getting punished a lot. Now this punishment isn’t glossed over, and it’s not just being sent to bed without supper. These nuns are horrific, beating the children and locking them in closets for days. It’s a wonder anyone survives such torment. On top of this, one of the nuns sexually abuses Pierrot and hates his friendship with Rose, so she goes out of her way to make Rose’s life even more miserable.
And yet the children grow up, and due to their performance talents, they are given opportunities to perform – only to bring in cash for the orphanage of course. They vow to form a traveling show of performers, and to marry each other when they are old enough. Sadly, Pierrot is adopted out when he is a teenager to an old man who wants some company – I was expecting this to be dark and twisted as well, but surprisingly the relationship was a good one. Rose isn’t told about this however, and she thinks he has abandoned her . When she is old enough to leave the orphanage, she becomes a governess for a wealthy family and ends up becoming the mistress of the husband.
Eventually she and Pierrot do find each other again, but their story isn’t all hearts and flowers. It’s not charming, or enchanting, or any of the other adjectives I’ve seen used about this book. This is a tragic tale that includes rape, abuse, drug addiction, prostitution, pornography, crime and general sadness. Oh, and clowns – lots of clowns! It’s not for everyone, and I questioned why I kept on reading more than once. The writing is very descriptive, and the author is a big fan of similes which abound on nearly every page, but I was just left with a feeling of depression when I was done with it.
Oh no, I have an unread copy of this at home. At least I know not to have high expectations. That’s what I get for buying a book because I like the cover.
The cover sucked me too!