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Book Review By Melissa Rachiele
The White Hotel by D.M. Thomas

Opera singer Lisa Erdman suffers from hallucinations along with psychosomatic pains in her left breast and left ovary. She is sent to Sigmund Freud for analysis after biological causes of her illness are ruled out.

During her analysis, she recounts to Freud an extended fantasy she had. In this fantasy, which she records both as poetic verses and as a travel journal, she meets Freud's son on a train and travels with him to a white hotel, where the two engage in a prolonged an extremely elicit love affair. At the same time, the white hotel is afflicted with a series of tragedies, including a fire, a landslide, and a flood.

Freud conducts an extended case study on Erdman, naming her "Frau Anna G." Through analysis of the dream and of her life history, he determines that she her issues are very tied up with her childhood discovery of her mother's affair with Lisa's uncle, and her mother's subsequent early death.

After completing her analysis, mostly healed of her ailments but not entirely convinced of the accuracy of Freud's conclusions, Lisa returns to her professional life. In the process of this, she marries again (for she is a divorcee), and becomes mother to a little Jewish boy in Russia, in the years immediately preceding World War II.


Plot & Themes
Tone of book? - depressed
Time/era of story - 1930's-1950's
Internal struggle/realization? Yes
Struggle over
Is this an adult or child's book? - Adult or Young Adult Book
Battle with a psychiatrist Yes
Brain/Body disability? - mental illness

Main Character
Gender - Female
Profession/status:
Age: - 20's-30's
Has magical powers? Yes
Magical/mental powers of main character:
Ethnicity/Nationality
Unusual characteristics:

Main Adversary
Identity: - Male
Age: - 60's-90's
Profession/status:
How sensitive is this character?
Intelligence - Very much smarter than other characters

Setting
How much descriptions of surroundings? - 7 ()
Europe Yes
European country: - Germany
Asia/Pacific Yes
Asian country: - Russia

Writing Style
Sex in book? Yes
What kind of sex: - touching of anatomy - orgies - lesbians! - actual description of hetero sex
Lot of foul language? Yes
Amount of dialog - roughly even amounts of descript and dialog
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