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Mon, 03 Apr 2000 16:00:00 +0000

A home away from home. A refuge, a respite. And best of all, room service. Here are some first-class scenes and stories set in hotels worth visiting.

"Lovers of Their Time" by William Trevor (in "The Collected Stories")

A doomed affair, circa 1963, between a middle-aged British travel agent trapped in a miserable marriage and a young shopgirl looking to settle down. The two begin to tryst during their lunch hour in a marble bathroom in London's Great Western Royal Hotel, where, after making love, they sit together in a giant tub, miraculously undisturbed.

"A Perfect Day for Bananafish" by J.D. Salinger (in "Nine Stories")

Salinger's classic takes place in a Florida hotel, over the course of a single afternoon. Up in Room 507, Muriel Glass polishes her nails and speaks to her mother on the phone. Out on the beach, her husband, Seymour, lies on the sand in his bathrobe, takes a little girl into the ocean and kisses the arch of her foot. From three spare scenes, we apprehend an entire tragedy.

Salon.com > Jhumpa Lahiri

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