Publishers Weekly
04/08/2019
Smith (The Last Painting of Sara De Vos) takes readers back to the dawn of the motion picture era in his splendid latest. Claude Ballard is an old man in 1962, living at Hollywood’s Knickerbocker Hotel, when he’s contacted by Martin Embry, a PhD candidate in film history. When the elderly director reveals that he owns a print of his first feature film, long considered lost, the young scholar’s enthusiasm about its discovery prompts Claude to reminisce about the film’s genesis and aftermath. From his early days photographically documenting ailments at a Paris hospital, to his rapid rise to prominence by demonstrating the capabilities of the Lumière brothers’ moving picture innovations, to his ill-fated (both professionally and personally) production of The Electric Hotel, to his surprising heroic turn in WWI, Claude’s own story—and those of the leading lady, stuntman, and impresario who collaborated with him—unfolds as cinematically as the scenes he creates on film. Fascinating information about the making of silent films (including a villainous cameo by Thomas Edison) is balanced by poignant, emotional portrayals of individuals attempting to define their lives offscreen even as they made history on it. Smith winningly delves into Hollywood’s past. (June)
From the Publisher
Praise for The Electric Hotel
“An irresistible and dizzying international tale of early cinema. [Smith] is a writer of elegance, rich imagination and propulsive plotting.”
—The Washington Post
“Radiant . . . a vital and highly entertaining work about the act of creation, and about what it means to pick up and move on after you’ve lost everything.”
—The New York Times
“The Electric Hotel enchants with a compelling plot but satisfies with the fully felt pathos of its characters.”
—BookPage
“A long-retired moviemaker recalls the early days of silent films in Smith's atmospheric follow-up to The Last Painting of Sara De Vos . . . Smith skillfully blends film history with the adventures of his cast . . . Martin's screening of the restored Electric Hotel provides a moving finale. A compelling plot, robust characters, and finely crafted prose richly evoke a bygone age and art.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred)
“Fascinating information about the making of silent films is balanced by poignant, emotional portrayals of individuals attempting to define their lives offscreen even as they made history on it. Smith winningly delves into Hollywood’s past.”
—Publishers Weekly
“Smith's tale is luminous . . . Highly recommended for historical fiction fans and readers who love old Hollywood novels.”
—Booklist (starred)
“Wondrous . . . [Smith] writes with an old-world elegance; you get lost in these pages like you do in a great movie, not wanting the lights to come up.”
—The Seattle Times
“A glorious ode to the luminous art that ushered in Hollywood’s film era.”
—BBC
“As fresh and deliciously strange as the first days of film-making it so dazzlingly brings to life, The Electric Hotel is utterly absorbing, astonishingly inventive, and richly imagined. Dominic Smith is a wizard.”
—Andrea Barrett, National Book Award winner and author of Archangel
Praise for The Last Painting of Sara de Vos
A Kirkus Reviews Best Book of the Year
“Audacious . . . Absolutely transporting.”
—Maureen Corrigan, NPR
“Gorgeous storytelling: wry, playful, and utterly alive, with an almost tactile awareness of the emotional contours of the human heart.”
—Laura Collins-Hughes, The Boston Globe
“Rapturous . . . Smith’s writing is incandescent from the first sentence.”
—Caroline Leavitt, San Francisco Chronicle
AUGUST 2019 - AudioFile
Dominic Smith’s latest fictional dive into the history of an art form makes for a rich audiobook under narrator Edoardo Ballerini’s able management. The period is the turn of the twentieth century, the arena the development of the moving picture, and the commercial question whether the technology of the French Lumière brothers or the patents of Thomas Edison will dominate the form. But of course Smith creates narrative power with personalities, not data. Ballerini makes the international cast vivid: the young French director Claude Ballard, his Sarah-Bernhardt-like inamorata, Sabine Montrose, a Brooklyn urchin who becomes a Hollywood producer, and a winning young Australian daredevil who invents the craft of the stuntman. Hold on for the literal cliff-hanger in reel four. It’s on fire. B.G. © AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine
