By Maria Duarte
The Lyric Hotel by Susan Sisko Carter centers on, Jeanette, a director for commercials who, after her husband’s death, sets her residency at The Lyric Hotel. This hotel located in Los Angeles attracts musicians, artists and actors. Jeanette didn’t tell anyone she was there. She wanted to be somewhere she could be anyone she wanted to be and not who she was before.
The story is, from the beginning, inviting and intriguing. The twists and turns are unexpected, and Carter is able to keep the reader glued to the story and wondering, “What is next” The reader follows Jeanette as she explores the side of herself that was there but was never able to explore openly when her husband was alive.
The reader is also able to follow Jeanette through the changes happening in her life after this traumatic event. Carter crafts a story that not only can be relatable but that also enlightens us in understanding how feelings, sexuality, and age intertwine with each other – the complications of dealing with them and how we deal with them in our own particular way. This is visible when Jeanette tries to do therapy after her husband’s death. All the other wives were dealing with grief differently than Jeanette and on their own terms.
Carter also gives the reader an insight on how a long-term stay in a hotel could be and the connections that can be formed. This book offers the reader a multilevel experience which at the end will give the reader a fantastic journey of self-discovery.
Maria Duarte received her MFA in Creative Writing from the University of California, Riverside – Palm Desert. She has published poems in Verdad Magazine and The Good Grief Journal: A Journey Toward Healing. She is poetry editor for Kelp Journal.
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