remains D.M. Thomas's best known novel. When it was published in 1981, it was an almost immediate critical success, winning both the Cheltenham Prize and the Pen Silver Pen. American readers in particular found the Freudian tones of the novel very attractive. Many of the themes of the novel, in particular its use of Freudian ideas to deal with the memory of the holocaust, reappear in a later novel by Thomas,
Pictures at an Exhibition(1993).
The treatment of the novel's topic, the horrors of the holocaust, is both highly creative and daring. The protagonist of the novel is a victim of the Nazi genocide. The book, thus, can be placed in the category of holocaust fiction; however, its highly playful and experimental form also places it within the postmodern tradition. The
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Citation: Bayer, Gerd. "The White Hotel". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 30 May 2008 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8144, accessed 21 November 2024.]
