OOh, this is good. Very Ford Maddox Ford with gay sex and a dog. ( )

Set in the febrile atmosphere of Lisbon amongst those desperate to leave a Europe falling to the fascists, this is a romance and a thriller, with a good sense of period and an uneasy mix of motion and inertia. It's reminiscent of Ford Madox Ford in the slippery relationships and interplays, and the knots of interpersonal relationships amongst the over privileged set alongside the desperation of war.

Fancy finding yourself in neutral Lisbon in 1940? Only if in finding oneself there, you also find love. Think Manning's _Balkan Trilogy_, but with some homosexuality thrown in. A very concise and spunky Manning with some Graham Greene (_The End of the Affair_ without the religion) also in the mix. A gem! ( )

Set in Lisbon in 1940, this is the tale of two expat couples waiting to sail to America in advance of the Nazi regime's steady progress westward and Portugal's perceptible adoption of fascist and anti-Semite policies. Still, Lisbon feels like a safe place to be and our lead characters are ambivalent about leaving Europe altogether. Leaving Paris was bad enough. Peter, our narrator, is married to Julia and having an affair with Edward (who is married to Iris). The four of them settle into an uncomfortable routine centering around meals together and with a four-hour block built into every day during which Peter and Edward can be alone together. Iris is absolutely aware of the affair and even contrives to support it, but Julia is presented as fragile and dependent, incapable of tolerating this infidelity (no comment). Peter's passion for Edward and his increasingly unhappy sense of duty to Julia become the foreground in this novel; in the background is the political and social scene to which these privileged Americans (okay, Iris is English but she has a U.S. visa) are largely inured. Julia, in particular, is so consumed by her grief at leaving their elegant apartment in Paris, which had been featured in Vogue, and returning to New York, which she had sworn she would never do, that she has little room for compassion or care for people whose very lives are endangered and who have no avenue for escape. The Manhattan, on which our main characters plan to sail, will absolutely not be accepting anyone without a US passport or visa.

We learn early in the novel that Julia is Jewish and that she will, in fact, not return to New York. For the rest of the novel, as Leavitt reminds us of these facts, we wonder what is going to happen to her? In the end, I was more moved by the demise of Daisy, the charming elderly wire fox terrier belonging to Iris and Edward, than by what transpires for Julia. I don't doubt that this was intentional on Leavitt's part. I've not read other works by Leavitt and I understand that this novel is less dark than some of his others, despite the time and place in which it is set and the rather sordid machinations among our four main characters. Leavitt's writing is deceptively straightforward; he effectively uses subtle metaphor and minor side plots. The novel flirts with comedy, even, but Leavitt carefully navigates around that temptation, holding steadily to a wry and even tragic compass setting. Primarily an exploration of the travails of marriage, The Two Hotel Francforts also provides an intriguing peek into Lisbon during this time of WWII. ( )

Lisbon in 1940, filled with expatriots who are try to get out of Europe and escape Hitler. Two couples meet and their lives become intertwined. Perhaps I felt uncomfortable as I read this because I was unable to relate to the main characters who seemed shallow and self-serving. ( )