The Hotel Neversink

June 24, 2019
Centered on a rambling hotel in the Catskills, the striking latest from Price (The Grand Tour) is part multigenerational saga, part murder mystery. In 1950, a young boy, Jonah, goes missing from the Hotel Neversink, and his disappearance kicks off a string of similar crimes that stretch across decades. The owners of the hotel, the Sikorsky family, avert scandal, until Jonah’s remains are discovered in the hotel’s basement in 1973. With no obvious suspects, the Sikorskys suffer the ups and downs of running a business associated with an unsolved murder, entertaining crime buffs and conspiracy theorists while the hotel—passed down from patriarch, Asher, to his daughter, Jeanie, and eventually to his grandson, Len—slowly loses its luster with vacationers, despite Len’s dedication to keeping the family business alive. Price focuses each chapter on a single character, which gives the work a novel-in-stories feel that periodically drifts from the hotel. As a result, the central mystery moves into the background, yet it never fully vanishes, wearing on characters without their acknowledgement as they face marital strain, addiction, and depression. Price is a sharp writer, and his novel wonderfully critiques family obligation while simultaneously delivering a crafty, sinister whodunit.

Steven Jay Cohen brings a note of eeriness and elegy to his narration of Price's Edgar Award-winning novel. This story traces the fall of the Sikorskys, Jewish-Polish immigrants who achieved the American dream with their purchase and renovation of the Hotel Neversink. Cohen channels the novel's melancholy tone, describing the family's damaged reputation when a young boy disappears from the hotel, and its steady decline once his bones are discovered. Cohen's voice is perfectly weary as he recounts the experiences of the family as Alice survives a brutal attack and Len desperately schemes to save the hotel. Cohen narrates each character's story in a similar tone, somewhat diminishing the nuances of this otherwise compelling listen. S.A.H. � AudioFile 2020, Portland, Maine