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Cordelivres Criticism Club
If The Past Comes In It Will Wring Her Neck: Eimear McBride's Strange Hotel [Part Two]
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If The Past Comes In It Will Wring Her Neck: Eimear McBride's Strange Hotel [Part Two]

The Latest Episode of the Cordelivres Criticism Club

A sharp spur of anxiety runs up her leg.

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This episode focuses on the second half of Eimear McBride's 2020 novel Strange Hotel, talking about the way her prose creates a parallel relationship between the reader’s repose to the text and the character’s response to memory. We looked at some more of that awesome McBride language, and had fun with quotes. Check out the first half of our conversation, from a couple weeks ago, below!

In part two, we focused on how the novel's language and structure create immersive memories and emotional depth, with specific attention to the narrative's shift from third-person to first-person perspective in the final pages. Then we talked a bit about stream-of-consciousness, and where Strange Hotel does or does not fit into that world—a conversation that’ll be ongoing in the Club. Hopefully this is only the beginning of McBride’s “experimental” phase.

Stay tuned for the Substack post with complete show notes next week, and in the meantime—stay critical.

Merci !

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