The Commercial Hotel by John Summers


The Commercial Hotel
Title : The Commercial Hotel
Author :
Rating :
ISBN : 1776564219
ISBN-10 : 9781776564217
Language : English
Format Type : Paperback
Number of Pages : 200
Publication : Published July 1, 2021

When John Summers moved to a small town in the Wairarapa and began to look closely at the less-celebrated aspects of local life – our club rooms, freezing works, night trains, hotel pubs, landfills – he saw something deeper. It was a story about his own life, but mostly about a place and its people. The story was about life and death in New Zealand.

Combining reportage and memoir, The Commercial Hotel is a sharp-eyed, poignant yet often hilarious tour of Aotearoa: a place in which Arcoroc mugs and dog-eared political biographies are as much a part of the scenery as the hills we tramp through ill-equipped. We encounter Elvis impersonators, the eccentric French horn player and adventurer Bernard Shapiro, Norman Kirk balancing timber on his handlebars while cycling to his building site, and Summers’s grandmother: the only woman imprisoned in New Zealand for protesting World War Two. And we meet the ghosts who haunt our loneliest spaces.

As he follows each of his preoccupations, Summers reveals to us a place we have never quite seen before.

The Commercial Hotel Reviews

  • Catherine Clarke

    A diverse collection of essays (preoccupations) that are quirky, reflective and insightful – often touching on forgotten snippets of NZ history. One to keep for rereading.

  • Karen Ross

    Everyhting about these stories is what it means to live in Aotearoa. So quintessentially of our country these stories delight, every one of them.

    Whether to read right through or dip in and out of its all about us.

  • Anne

    This is a book I am going to have to come back to (it is way past it's due date at the library). However the essays that I have read (about half) are clever, thoughtful, keenly observant, well researched, full of information, sometimes funny and often bringing back memories of a different time when I grew up in the seventies and eighties. There are zinger sentences and sentiments which jumped off the page and resonated with me. Yes - this is definitely a book I will return to.

  • Sariya

    An illustrative series of essays encompassing nostalgic slices of New Zealand life. It evokes memories of sounds, smells and sights of places and stories that are familiar and long-gone. A precious find for sure!

  • Joseph Ernest

    i liked the book. remind me of steve braunias listener columns about lamingtons and non-espresso coffee. best ones were about his grandma, staffroom cups, and norm kirk.

  • Samantha

    I loved this book. John is an awesome writer and storyteller.