Rick Moody's Hotels of North America (Little, Brown and Company) was born out of revulsion. While trying to write a conventionally structured novel at a particularly bad hotel, he found himself repulsed by his writing when his wife suggested they rate the hotel. Thus the novel took its unique storytelling shape – hotel reviews that really, become reviews on life. Moody talks about the absence of landscape and writing the main character first, something he's never done before. It resulted in such a strongly character-driven book that, if the protagonist walked into a room in real life, Moody would be able to immediately point him out.
Read an excerpt from Hotels of North America.
Photo: Alex Pieros