The Two Hotel Francforts by David Leavitt Guest Review!!

About the Book

It is the summer of 1940, and Lisbon, Portugal, is the only neutral port left in Europe—a city filled with spies, crowned heads, and refugees of every nationality, tipping back absinthe to while away the time until their escape. Awaiting safe passage to New York on the SS Manhattan, two couples meet: Pete and Julia Winters, expatriate Americans fleeing their sedate life in Paris; and Edward and Iris Freleng, sophisticated, independently wealthy, bohemian, and beset by the social and sexual anxieties of their class. As Portugal’s neutrality, and the world’s future, hang in the balance, the hidden threads in the lives of these four characters—Julia’s status as a Jew, Pete and Edward’s improbable affair, Iris’s increasingly desperate efforts to save her tenuous marriage—begin to come loose. This journey will change their lives irrevocably, as Europe sinks into war.

Gorgeously written, sexually and politically charged, David Leavitt’s long-awaited new novel is an extraordinary work.

Guest Review

The Two Hotel Francforts tells a story readers may never consider when thinking of World War II.  It tells the story of the people you never think about, not the soldiers or their families, not the Jews, not the Nazis, but those so uninvolved, it makes you wonder how many stories have gone untold.

The story is an interesting take on the part we never think of during a war, the waiting period.  Here we have two couples who, by happenstance or serendipity, meet while waiting for transport back to America, a land yet untouched by war.  While in the safe zone of Lisbon, Julia and Peter Winters stumble (or perhaps it was planned) upon Edward and Iris Freleng , all unimportant lives in an era of conflict. 

Author David Leavitt proceeds to tell a tale deceptive and painful for all involved, with intense character development and descriptions.  All characters are egotistical, needy and self-absorbed, each in their own way.  And Leavitt drags the reader through drama filled pages and it isn’t until the end that we realize these flaws.  As relationships and loyalties shift, drama ensues and the one character avoided throughout the story is essentially omniscient and revealing in the end – bringing it all together.

This is a tangled tale of passion, longing, disappointment and deceit.  Are these people really who they say they are?  This story definitely calls into question everything we think about love and marriage.  Do we really love anyone but ourselves?  Do we even really know anyone? Though quite wordy at times, long-winded and anticlimactic, it shows how much can change in just a few short days.  It’s World War II meets murder mystery, with a touch of infidelity, homosexuality and depression. 

A copy of this book was provided by Netgalley and compensation was not received.