3.5 stars

I liked Last Summer at the Golden Hotel better but this was entertaining. It’s a very similar story - an emotionally distant family are forced to share space and in doing so, all their calamitous secrets rise to the surface, eventually bringing them all together. But this is a story that Friedland does well, so to that extent, I don’t mind at all reading the same basic story in different settings.

I only like Golden Hotel better because … well, it was funnier, frankly. In this book, there’s a certain ironies but comparatively fewer laugh out loud moments. (The nose hair thing was the one that got me, really.) In Golden Hotel, there’s ironies but also some really good quips and humorous catastrophes and such.

All in all, I liked this but I think The Last Summer at the Golden Hotel did it better.