Ellen Cooney A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies

A Private Hotel for Gentle Ladies

Ellen Cooney

Pantheon, Nov 2005, $23.95

ISBN: 0375423400

She thought she was Cinderella when she married the son of a wealthy family. However, Charlotte hates where she lives, her husband's family mansion where his relatives are everywhere criticizing everything she does. Already in disfavor with her in-laws for not producing the next generation, Charlotte becomes so ill she is unable to leave her room for almost a year. When she finally leaves, she finds her husband enjoying the pleasures of a woman.

Unhappy and disappointed in his betrayal, Charlotte has no place to go in puritanical 1900 Massachusetts except to see former family cook Mrs. Petty, who now works in Boston's Beechmont, A PRIVATE HOTEL FOR GENTLE LADIES. With no options, Charlotte stays there. Eventually she realizes that this is no hotel or shelter for single women, but a place where males of all ages and shapes visit the female guests to pleasure them. However she wonders if she can be one of them as she reflects on her childhood and with her husband and his family.

Ellen Cooney paints an astute historical character study driven by Charlotte who breaks out of her web as she becomes aware that her past, her in-laws, a betrayal, and her illness (polio) does not prevent her from becoming a desirable woman. The story line looks deep into the present and past of Charlotte, enabling the audience to understand how the child makes the adult especially her inhibitions and doubts; however these passages also abruptly occur disjointing the otherwise keen story line somewhat. Still readers will find A PRIVATE HOTEL FOR GENTLE WOMEN an appealing discerning period piece.

Harriet Klausner