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• The story is haunting verging on disturbing as it follows the life of the female protagonist's life all the way thru to her death at the hands of the Nazis. There are parts of the book that are emotionally very hard to read. But it certainly is worth it. The awkwardness of the style, very un-British, comes from fact that the author uses pastiche, i.e., he imitates Freud's own case-studies on hysteria. This is what makes the story, especially the first part, somewhat confusing, too. It reads as though we are given a glimpse of Freud's original case-study, footnotes and all. One has to keep in mind that the story is fictional and the author has combined multiple of Freud's studies of hysteria.

• The other reviewers have given a concise and accurate appraisal; I just wanted to add my thoughts on the book. As you can see I have given it five stars too, so you know I know it's an excellent story and would whole heartedly recommend it: I particularly enjoyed `The Garstein Journal' (2nd chapter) - it is unique in my experience of reading as starting rationally passing through some eroticism then a moment of my thinking `this paragraph is getting too unbelievable', increasing incredulity but concluding with a deep, abiding sinister reality. However there should be nothing wrong with me focusing on what I didn't like about the book: a)It really didn't need the last chapter `the camp' - this seemed more like the unnecessary happy ending (don't worry I'm really not spoiling it for you) b)Written in 1981 Thomas wouldn't have known about `Little Britain' and the guy wanting `Bitty' c)It being so clever, detailed, poignant, sad, challenging etc it definitely deserves one's deeper analysis and re-reading but, for me, life's too short to re-read books - and Like Freud in the story you may well get it wrong?. d) if the devastating chapter 'the sleeping carriage' was intended to be the 'actual' account of the earlier narrative I did feel it had some moments of undeliberate implausibility.

• Alls bestens

• Somehow I missed this when it came out and was going around and the "hot" read. I was in an acting class, when someone was doing a scene from Prelude to a Kiss. The White Hotel was mentioned and it peaked my curiosity, especially when the instructor spoke about it in class, at the completion of the scene. My husband died five years ago, and I couldn't focus on anything, not even a magazine article, much less an entire book. This was my first book to not only read, but devour! It seemed as though I knew it, read it before, experienced it before. That deja vu quality was so there for me. I intend to read it again and again and again. The characters came alive for me, and I hung on their every conversation and adventure. Can't say enough about this piece of work. Truly pulled me into it's vortex. Excellent!

• I haven't read it myself but i'm getting this one as a gift for someone who is interested in the topic, book arrived in great condition although the printing is a little off.

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