The White Hotel
D.M. Thomas
The White Hotel is a strikingly
original, nightmarish portrait of
the life, death and dreams of a
European Jewess early in the
20th Century — composed of
letters, verses, diaries and
Freud's own case history of her
D M Thomas plays a subtle
variation on a theme by Freud,
suggesting what the Holocaust
might have done to one of his
more attractive hysterics
"Do not be put off by the very
explicit sexual passages they
are vital A searing, complex,
disturbing study of fantasy,
truth, cruelty, love and death,"
wrote London Sunday Express
literary critic Graham Lord
"There is no other novel to my
knowledge which resembles
this in technique or ideas It
stands alone ” commented
Graham Green on Thomas's
best-seller
But the originality of the The
White Hotel takes it toll on the
reader Perhaps more than any
book written about the Nazi
holocaust, The White Hotel
communicates the true horror
of the extermination through the
story of a single life
When it was first published in
London in January 1981, The
White Hotel went unnoticed,
selling just 2.000 copies But its
muimmiiii]
American publication in March
brought Thomas instant
acclaim — a tide that eventually
reached the British shore
The White Hotel actually
started as a poem, b><t Thomas
found he couldn't end it to his
satisfaction Then, searching
for something to read on a flight
to the United States, he picked
up Babi Yar, Anatoli Kusnet
sov's book about the wartime
atrocities at Kiev This horrifying
account of the Holocaust
connected immediately in his
mind with his poem Thomas
didn't even make the trip to the
United States — he just sat down
and finished The White Hotel
D M Thomas is Donald
Michael Thomas, born in 1935
in Cornwall, England. At the age
of 18, he entered the military
where he was forced to learn
Russian so he could listen to
and report on Russian tank
maneuvers across the East
German border This exper
ience led to a long-lasting inter
est in Russian literature The
works of Bulgakov, Turgenev,
Pasternak and Pushkin opened
up a new world for this working
class boy from a small mining
town
After his discharge from the
army, Thomas won a scholar
ship to Oxford where he studied
English, then went on to a
teacher-education course
Graduating with honors in 1958,
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Thomas taught secondary
school English in Devon before
becoming a lecturer, and then
head of the English Department
at Hereford College of Educa
tion
In 1978, Hereford College
closed and Thomas turned to
writing full time Eager to ex
periment with different forms,
he turned to writing novels He
wrote two, Birthstone and The
Flute-Player, the latter which will
continued on page 8b
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NOW PLAYING
2nd WEEK!
Hi Mom and Dad
Now about my allowance