(Reprinted from the Chicago Center for Literature and Photography [cclapcenter.com]. I am the original author of this essay, as well as the owner of CCLaP; it is not being reprinted illegally.)

Based on other online reviews I've seen, I can understand why Will Wiles' The Way Inn might not be everyone's cup of tea -- some people might find it a little too silly, others a little too pointless, and both these arguments are fair if you're going into the book determined not to like it. But I, on the other hand, ended up loving it quite a bit, and that's because the book is a successful combination of several different major influences: it's partly like a Douglas Coupland novel (in that it's a highly intelligent sociological breakdown of generic suburban hotel chains, and what their blandness says about us as human beings), partly like a JG Ballard story (in that this blandness is the inspiration for an existential horror story concerning our narrator hero, a professional attendee of corporate conferences who basically freelances his body to other office workers, delivering reports on what they missed and posing as them at such conventions' many meet-and-greet events), and partly like a David Lynch movie (in that this existential horror ends up having a very real science-fictiony explanation behind it, which without going into detail is kind of like a haunted-house story meeting quantum physics), all of which is meshed together in this beautiful way by Wiles so that each of the elements compliments the other, not clashes against them. In fact, there's really only one major criticism to be made of this fast-paced, always interesting book, that several of the scenes near the end suffer from what I call "Clive Barker Syndrome" (that is, on paper such scenes come off as okay, but would look ridiculously cheesy and cartoonish if anyone ever tried actually filming them); but if you can live with a climax that will sometimes make you roll your eyes a bit, the rest of this sharp, insightful novel will be right up the alley of Lost fans and the like, a philosophical look at our modern world that doubles as a pretty effective genre thriller as well.

Out of 10: 9.2, 9.7 for David Lynch fans ( )

The Short of It:

Very strange, often clever but surreal story about a guy and a hotel.

The Rest of It:

What I said above sounds simplistic, doesn’t it? But that’s really what the story is about. Neil Double is a conference surrogate. His job is to attend conferences on your behalf. Why spend money and time to send your employees all over the country for these things, when you can pay one guy to do it for you? That’s Neil. He reminded me a lot of Sheldon Cooper from The Big Bang Theory. He’s very precise and wants things to be a certain way and he loves hotels. More than the average person and definitely more than the conference goers who normally attend these events.

This time, he is staying at The Way Inn, which is a hotel chain that he is very familiar with but there is something very strange about this particular hotel. The corridors seem oddly familiar and yet new and every once in awhile, his key card fails to work and it almost seems as if his hotel room appears in two different places. As you can see, it’s a little bit surreal once you get into the meat of the story and I think some readers might be turned off by it. However, I think the cleverness outweighed the other elements and although I did lose a little interest when I realized where the story was going, I still thought it was a pretty clever story idea.

There are some other characters that add interest. The conference head who realizes what Neal is doing and tries to put a stop to it. There is also a strange woman who keeps showing up and Neal is absolutely sure he’s seen her before. So along with the surreal stuff, there is a tiny bit of mystery as well.

Would I recommend it? I would, if you don’t mind a lot of mundane details. You see, I am a little anal and highly sensitive to noise and smells and lots of other things these days so the highly descriptive parts about the hotel itself were fascinating to me. I can see others being bored by them though. Also, I am not sure the majority of you would buy into the surreal aspect of the story but it was a quick read and I found it entertaining. Just know, that’s it’s clever but may not be for everyone.

For more reviews, visit my blog: Book Chatter. ( )

I thought "The Way Inn" would be a hotel/convention version of "Up in the Air" - the movie that is referenced on the back of my copy. A take on the generic comforts of the hospitality industry - where "nothing but the best" rapidly becomes "everything is the same." Parts of this book were like that.

Neil Double (!) the main character - is a conference surrogate. He'll travel to conferences so you don't have to. Bring back the information for you at a fraction of the cost and time. He's a pro at navigating hotels & convention centers. He seems a natural at it - and a scene draws from his first memory of being "cared for" at a hotel: "The theatre with the silver tray and the little disc of layered paper was acted out for me. I could ask for things and they would appear with panache." He is especially enamored of room services, housekeeping, and bathrooms he never has to clean. He is embraced and surrounded by pleasant sameness - generic smiles, stock photo people, and hotel paintings.
"The paintings were all over the hotel - in my room, here in the restaurant, out in the lobby, in the bar. And so it was in every Way Inn. They were all variations on an abstract theme: meshing coffee-coloured curves and bulging shapes, spheres within spheres, arcs, tangents, all inscrutable, suggestive of nothing. I had never really examined them - they were not there for admiring, they were there simply to occupy space without distracting or upsetting. They were an approximation of what a painting might look like, a stand-in for actual art."

Anyone who has stayed in chain hotels or traveled much for business can relate to Neil's observations - and some of them are funny.

"People form habits quickly in hotels. They nurture new routines. You go out of your room, you turn toward the lift or the stairs, and you repeat the same turn every time. There's no reason to turn the other way."

"The Nespresso machine in the corner glinted with the promise of uniform, repeatable, predictable cups of coffee of acceptable quality. Perfect for chain hotels, of course."

The "Up in the Air" feeling soon rapidly gives way to much darker elements. Scenes and plot devices that seem pulled from "The Hobbit", "Fear & Loathing in Las Vegas", and particularly "The Shining". There is one scene that seems to be written for Jack Torrance & Lloyd the bartender at the Overlook Hotel.

"How long have you been serving the hotel, Hilbert?" I asked, working in a note of pastoral concern. "Yes! Hilbert said. He appeared delighted at my query. "I knew you sensed it. I knew it. Precisely the question." And later, ""Hell of a bargain," I said. "You get to live forever. But you have to spend eternity in a chain hotel on a motorway."

I have to admit - past the first third of the book - I was completely lost. The social commentary that I was enjoying disappeared in a cloud of abstract images and actions. I could not follow the thread of either the plot of the writer's overall point. Surely it was my fault, but the more I read of "The Way Inn" - the faster I wanted to get out. ( )