This was my first Lyndsay Faye novel. The writing style, pacing, and storytelling were all wonderful. I enjoyed this more than I thought I would! Dark & suspenseful - I wouldn't hesitate to recommend this one.

Lyndsay Faye loves to tackle historical topics in a new way. Both Jane Steele and The Gods of Gotham were excellent showcases of her talent. With The Paragon Hotel, too many topics were tackled and bogged down the plot. I enjoyed her writing, but there was a sense that the author had a 1920's bingo card she was trying to win. I think a more focused topic and only one timeline would have elevated this story.

After reading another book by Lyndsey Faye, I thought I would be just as captivated by this book as I was the first. Sadly, that was not so. Trying to put my finger on the problem is hard though. I lost interest several times but tried to pick the book back up and finish it. I did complete the novel but I found it very hard to do. There was a lot of racial tension, as this is a historical novel based on the times where segregation played a major role in society. A white woman fleeing with a gun shot wound because of prohibition meets a black man that takes pity on her bringing her back to the Paragon hotel. Where many blacks live and no whites are allowed. It seemed that at first all was well but the characters were not very likable as well as they did not mesh well with one another. I would read another book by this author because the first one was so great.

3 out of 5 stars

In 1921 Prohibition Era America, Alice, has been shot and is running from her Harlem Mafia boss. She gets on a train that eventually will lead her to Portland, and Max, a Pullman porter leads her to the all-black Paragon hotel. She is treated for her gunshot wound and feels safe--for a while. The KKK is on the rise in America and Alice (aka "Nobody") now feeling a part of this close community, feels she needs to take a part in its activities, including the search for a missing boy.

The period details are fun, and the writing is outstanding.

Thanks to NET GALLEY for the ARC.

Unfortunately I DNF’d this book before the pub date. Many thanks to the publisher for providing me with an ARC.

Alice "Nobody" James arrives in Portland, Oregon in 1921, with a festering bullet wound and a suitcase full of cash. Pullman porter Max befriends her and brings her to the Paragon Hotel, Portland's only all-Black hotel. The residents are uneasy about a white woman in their midst, a fear that only grows as Ku Klux Klan activity is on the rise. Everyone has a complicated past, and things come to a head when young Davy Lee disappears from the hotel.

I dragged my feet a good long while before finally deciding to read The Paragon Hotel by Lyndsay Faye. I was completely besotted, over the moon, borderline trash for her Timothy Wilde trilogy. However I was the only reader on the planet who really did not like her first book post-trilogy, Jane Steele. But seriously y'all, I loved the trilogy - so one bump in the road wasn't going to put me off. However, the plot description for The Paragon Hotel almost did. Land mines. So many, in fact, that I'm finally reading this book nearly two years after it's publication date.

It's 1921 and Alice "Nobody" James has just landed in Portland, Oregon with a bullet wound in her side and $50,000 in impeccable counterfeit bills. She hustled her sweet behind out of Harlem (where she got said bullet wound and currency) thanks to a crooked cop - leaving behind a mobster guardian, a childhood friend turned sociopath, and an unrequited love who couldn't kick heroin. It's on the train to Portland that she befriends a black Pullman porter who, seeing her in a bad way, spirits her to The Paragon Hotel - the only all-black hotel in Portland. None of the residents are happy to have a white woman in their midst (for obvious reasons), but they patch her up all the same.

It's at the Paragon that Alice's attraction to Max (said Pullman porter) grows, she meets the borderline belligerent Dr. Pendleton, the all-seeing, all-knowing Mavereen, and the charming, can't-take-your-eyes-off-her, nightclub singer, Blossom Fontaine - just to name a few. But then a young orphan who everyone takes care of at the hotel goes missing, the Ku Klux Klan heats up activities, and naturally there's a vile, crooked local cop stirring the pot. In the middle of the stew is Nobody - a woman with a nose for secrets, who can blend in anywhere and go unnoticed, a woman who finds herself untangling a web that spun up around her.

Reading that synopsis you can probably guess the elephants in the room. You've got a white main character surrounded by a large, mostly black, supporting cast. Is this a white savior narrative? I think that's up for the individual reader to determine. I can see how some readers would think so. For me? I found there was nuance to it. Is Alice a white savior? Yes. Does Alice, in turn, get saved by some of the black characters? Yes. Make of that what you will.

This is also a story featuring LGBTQ characters and to really dive deeply into this aspect of the story pretty much gives ALL the spoilers. I don't identify as LGBTQ so take this for what it's worth - but this aspect of the story largely worked for me in a setting and era where it was extremely difficult for people to "live out loud" when they're black and queer - never mind in a city like Portland. Hell, it can be extremely difficult in the 21st century...

Is this Faye's story to tell? As a white writer who identifies as queer? Some readers won't think so - and as readers that is our right. It largely worked for me. Does that make me part of the problem? Some readers will think so - and as readers that is their right.

Not to say I was madly in love with this however. For one thing the mystery of the missing orphan boy didn't work for me at all. Largely because I didn't see the need for The Big Secret surrounding his disappearance. It's kept a secret from people who love Davy Lee - and I couldn't abide that - especially when I saw absolutely no reason to keep them in the dark. Very plausible explanations could have been given. Instead these people who love the boy will never know what happened to him and I cannot abide that. Also, as much as I liked the audio edition, I'm glad I decided to not read this in print because the beginning is slow. Really slow. It takes a while to get anywhere.

There are flashbacks employed in this story - to Alice's childhood days in Harlem, how she ended up as the ward of a mobster, and what transpired before she found herself on a cross-country train with a bullet wound.

Did I love this as much as the Timothy Wilde books? No. Did I like this more than Jane Steele? Lord above, yes. Yes, it's problematic. Yes, I can see why this problematic content would be a bridge too far for some readers. I recognize this - but I still liked it.

Final Grade = B

I lost interest. The bonds no back and forth didn’t work for me. The story didn’t connect well and I just didn’t care about finishing the book.

I received a review copy courtesy of Net Galley and Putnam Penguin, and what’s more, I got it a long time ago. I have struggled with this book and still haven’t read all of it, but I’ve spent enough time on it that I feel equipped to write about it, or at least the part I’ve read.

The story is of a Caucasian woman traveling incognito, on the run from the law during Prohibition. She’s got a bullet wound and is in a bad way when the Negro Pullman porter takes pity on her and drags her home to the Paragon Hotel in Portland, Oregon. But the hotel is for Negroes (the correct term during this time period,) and she isn’t entirely welcome; she looks as if she might draw trouble fast.

There are a hundred reasons I should have loved this book, and I’m still struggling to decide why I don’t. The former: I grew up in Portland and earned half of my history degree there. Portland history is a particular love of mine, and I’ve long been bemused at the way present day Boomers remain so smugly oblivious to the ugly racist history of the city. The Ku Klux Klan once had a chapter in the basement of a Methodist church in Sellwood, a neighborhood in Southeast Portland; I lived less than a mile from that church at one point. Furthermore, I have not found one inaccuracy in Faye’s setting. She’s brought it in like a champ.

Civil rights is another of my passions; I found nothing to object to in the way Faye handles this aspect of the story.

Yet for some reason, I cannot engage with this thing, and furthermore I cannot even stand to listen to all of it. There’s something about the author’s writerly voice that just grates on me. I have tried reading, and I have tried listening to the audio version, which often works for me when reading has failed. Nope. I can’t stand this book. In particular, the dialogue irritates the heck out of me.

If I were to give star ratings on my visceral reaction to this book, I’d probably give two stars. I can’t do that though, because it would be enormously unfair. I cannot pan a book without a specific reason, and so help me, I can’t find one. I think this is just an unusual individual reaction to a stylized, artistically rendered storyteller; and so this is what has held me back from reviewing. At first, I was convinced that with enough discipline, I could finish it; then when I realized that was never going to happen, I couldn’t figure out what rating to use, or what to say. I always have a good reason and a careful analysis, and this time both have eluded me. I'm so confused!

If the things I have mentioned—civil rights, Portland, history during the Prohibition era—are in your wheelhouse, you may love this book. It seems just about everyone else does. If in doubt, read an excerpt, or get a copy free or cheap.

Go figure.

This book was a delight with its dual narratives -- the Now of Klan-haunted Portland and the Then of Mafia-ruled Harlem -- without sacrificing credulity or straining belief. The characters are fabulous. I wanted to be there and to meet them and to have drinks with them.

Featured in a column on historical fiction picks, Shelf Awareness for Readers, April 2019:

"I first encountered Lyndsay Faye's historical fiction when The Gods of Gotham (Putnam, $16) came out in 2012, and it was love at first read. Faye's ability to pack a thriller of a story with accurate historical detail, period language and vivid descriptions of a time and place is exactly what draws me to historical fiction in the first place. So I was delighted to hear she was returning to historical fiction with The Paragon Hotel (Putnam, $26), which transports readers back to an all-black hotel in 1920s Portland, Ore."

I am a member of the American Library Association Reading List Award Committee. This title was suggested for the 2020 list. It was not nominated for the award. The complete list of winners and shortlisted titles is at <a href="https://rusaupdate.org/2020/01/2020-reading-list-years-best-in-genre-fiction-for-adult-readers/">

I really wanted to enjoy this one but overall found it incredibly tedious to read. The writing felt heavy-handed, as if someone tried too hard or edited it to death. I tried and failed to have interest in the MC and ultimately found myself loathing to pick the book up.

This is one I DNFed but I definitely plan to get another shot. It starts out very slow which at the time to starting this I need something fast paced. But i heard that when this gets going its good. So i will be back to up date my thoughts at a later time.

I generally love Lindsay Faye books, but there was too much violence toward animals in the opening few chapters, and I just couldn't keep reading. This is my pecadillo, and I imagine many other readers will find the book quite engaging.

This is my first read by this author and she creates a fascinating and often gripping tale of Harlem and Portland back in the early 1920s with great characters and a plot that twists and turns magically. The main character, Alice James, a white mob girl, fleeing a serious dust-up in Harlem, finds herself recuperating from wounds in an all black hotel on the other side of the country — the Paragon in the title — and before long she is swept up in a series of events that pit her and her new friends against the KKK which is emerging in Portland and Oregon with terrifying force. I was struck by the careful research provided at the beginning of each chapter in snippets from actual documents from those times showing how deeply racism had been institutionalized in Oregon. The author is great at characterization and skilled at creating vivid scenes. There are some surprises as the story comes to its end which are moving and quite stunning. I will now want to read her other novels.

Thank you very much for allowing me the opportunity to read this book! I appreciate the kindness. <3

In The Paragon Hotel, Lyndsay Faye brings us a character nicknamed Nobody. She’s actually Alice James, but is skilled at disappearing into the corner of a room or a street. She uses some disguise, but mostly changes voices and attitudes to blend in. It’s a skill she learned growing up in an early 1900s whorehouse.

Faye flips the chapters back and forth between Then and Now. Now is 1920s Portland, Oregon. Then was early teens New York City and boroughs. In both cases Alice / Nobody barely manages to keep out of the fire. In fact, the entire reason she’s in Portland is because the flames got too high and hot in NYC.

Nobody is a plucky young woman, born into adversity and managing to survive by the skin of her teeth. But I also must say, Nobody is little bit boring. I struggled with this book, until *wham-bam* Faye hit me with three big plot twists in three chapters. Then all of a sudden the freight train started to fly downhill and threaten to hop off the tracks. However, I could have used about 50 pages less exposition to those twists.

My conclusions
Faye is an ambitious writer. And in The Paragon Hotel she takes on a wide variety of topics that are as timely today as they were in Nobody’s day.

In the Oregon story, Nobody, who is white, lives in a hotel for black people. Considering it was illegal to be black and living in Oregon at the time, Faye hits both race relations and racism smack on their white hooded heads. Yes, there’s KKK in the story. And some white savior complex …

In the New York story, Nobody is a player (or maybe a pawn) in one man’s long game against the Mafia. Her lifelong friend Nicolo is involved as well, but his part is unclear until Faye pulls back the veil. It’s a risky game for everyone involved.

In both stories, Faye also takes on some aspects of women’s rights and the question of sexuality. Plenty of women in the story struggle with whether they have a right to agency, from Nobody’s mother to various characters in Portland. While this isn’t the center of the story, it’s easy to see how important the topic is to the author.

As I mentioned, The Paragon Hotel didn’t move quickly enough for me. I recall feeling the same way with her book Dust and Shadow, although I liked that book more overall. It’s not especially long, but took me much longer than normal to finish. I just kept picking other books up instead. And yet, those twists at the end were its savior. Without them, I would be panning the book. With them, I’m recommending it with an eye to patience.

Acknowledgements
I received a digital ARC from NetGalley and publisher Penguin Group / Putnam / G.P. Putnam’s Sons in exchange for this honest review. Many thanks to them as well as the author.

NetGalley Review

It took me a long time to get into this book. It took me even longer to realize that maybe I’m just not meant to love this book either. This is by no means a reflection of the author’s writing or storytelling. I absolutely loved Faye’s writing. Although I wasn’t alive in the 1920s, I did feel as if I was transported there. The blunt but genuine descriptions further aided to Faye’s world building and overall plot. There wasn’t a moment when I was taken out of the story.

As for the characters, I tried my best to follow and feel for them. But something was lacking. Maybe it was the dialogue or Alice’s actions, either way, I was left a little disappointed. I was more so interested in the world around them rather than themselves. This might’ve been my mistake when I first saw this book. It didn't want I was expecting but in a good way. Though there were some scenes I thought we could’ve gone without, I still enjoyed reading The Paragon Hotel.

This is an excellent historical novel told in two timeframes with chapters titled Now and Then; "Now" being Portland, Oregon and "Then" being Little Italy in NYC’s Harlem. The entire novel takes place circa 1920.

Alice “Nobody” James, daughter of a whore and by all fates destined to become one, is offered an interesting proposition. In exchange for an education of sorts, room and board, and access to Mafioso big boss, Mr. Salvatici, she will become his eyes and ears, a protégé of sorts. Because Alice is not noticeable—hence her moniker, Nobody—she floats unnoticed through the neighborhood and reports back to Salvatici. Until one day she becomes visible, dangerously visible, and ends up running for her life, which we know from the opening scenes of the book. She flees her Harlem neighborhood with it all prejudices and crime for a place farthest away she can think of: Portland, Oregon.

She lands in a hotel for “Negros only.” Faye base her fictional Paragon Hotel on an actual hotel in Portland called The Golden West. Founded in the early 1900s, it served black railroad workers, like the handsome Pullman Alice meets on the train headed west, Max. Alice finds she has fled one form of violence and discrimination to another much more virulent kind- the Klan.

Few hipsters who have moved to Portland for its liberal politics know about Oregon’s brutal and discriminatory past. Known as “the whitest city in America,” Portland and the state itself were founded on a white nationalist ideal.
Faye is a wonderful writer. I particularly enjoyed the small jokes and insinuations she makes as she is telling the story, as though she were having fun at her keyboard. She has certainly done her homework recreating the 1920 and 30s in both Portland and New York.

It’s an informative book and worth reading if for no other reason that the damning epigraphs at the beginning of each chapter. These Faye ripped right out of Oregon books, journals, and newspapers and shows the level of racism and discrimination blacks suffered during that period of its history.