Heartbreak Hotel

January 15, 2015
An aging yet charming B&B attracts guests with similar qualities in this follow-up to The Ex-Wives (1993).When Buffy, a retired actor, leaves London to embark on a second career after inheriting the dilapidated Myrtle House in rural Wales, his optimism is endearing. Inspired by conversations with lonely visitors, Buffy decides to offer "courses for divorces," from cooking to auto maintenance, to fill more beds. The courses never quite take off, but the guests pick up other life skills at the newly dubbed Heartbreak Hotel. Postman Andy gets his chance to be a hero after leaving his brave but patronizing ex-girlfriend. Amy, a makeup artist whose boyfriend left her for another woman, coaxes her handsome instructor away from his clingy mother. Buffy's love life is so complicated that there's a character guide in the front of the book for keeping track of all his ex-wives and their adult children. Harold, a writer who mines the fictional small town for story material after staying at the inn, admits, "There were just too many characters jostling for space." But the details are hyper-real enough to be memorable-the breakups are sad, the backsides are saggy, and no one looks good for their age-without being bleak. Most touching is the fact that Buffy, who reminisces about his exes as fondly as he does his acting roles, has never given up on love: "There's a lot to be said for it. The deep peace of the marriage bed, tra-la, after the hurly-burly of the chaise longue." It's hard not to love a rusty lothario who paraphrases Shakespeare in the face of loneliness. The theme of love at any age is well-worn territory; here, it's worn in all the right places.

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March 1, 2015
Moggach (The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, 2004) revisits characters from her earlier novel, The Ex-Wives (1993), namely former actor Russell Buffy Buffery and his family. Now over 70, Buffy has grown tired of life in London. So when he inherits, from an old friend, a bed-and-breakfast in the quiet Welsh town of Knockton, Buffy picks up and moves, determined to keep it going. Business is slow initially, until Buffy gets a brilliant idea: he will cater to clients who have recently separated from their partners by offering classes on car maintenance, cooking, and other basic life skills his patrons might have relied on their former spouses to handle. As the clients start rolling in, love blossoms in unexpected places. A makeup artist falls for a hunky local, Buffy's stepdaughter finds romance in the kitchen, and one of Buffy's ex-wives makes a connection with an aspiring novelist. Buffy himself isn't immune when an event planner close to his own age pays a visit to the B and B. A charming tale of second, even third, chances.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)