The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Ratings8
Average rating3.1
Discover the Sunday Times bestselling novel that inspired the beloved film. The book that inspired the box office hit The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel starring Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Bill Nighy, Celia Imrie, Dev Patel and Penelope Wilton Enticed by advertisements for a luxury retirement home in India, a group of strangers leave England to begin a new life. On arrival, however, they discover the palace is a shell of its former self, the staff are more than a little eccentric and the days of the Raj appear to be long gone. But, as they soon discover, life and love can begin again, even in the most unexpected circumstances. Previously published with the title These Foolish Things.
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Fun prose and interesting characters. The racism is unfortunately representative of the time.
Pathos just doesn't do it for me. I started this book a couple of months ago, abandoned it after 40 pages because of its depressing lack of humanity, then picked it up again today because (almost) everything deserves a second chance. I finished it, but I'm not sure I'd encourage anyone else to. It's just... bleak. I know the author tries to paint in some redemption, some self-discovery, but it falls flat.
(Aside: romanticizing life in a third-world country doesn't do it for me either.)
I liked the premise of this book - I mean, why not open a retirement home in India? My problem what that the ensemble of characters was too big. I had Ravi and Dr. Rama mixed up for a long time, and Evelyn and Madge and Muriel all run together. The book didn't give me enough touchstones to distinguish the characters from one another. I kept thinking we would follow the story of one or two characters, and then the story line would switch to someone else. It was too distracting for my tastes.
