Super Host
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3.8 • 69 Ratings
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- $4.99
Publisher Description
“Get ready to smile….[A] sweet story and the perfect antidote to the chaos that’s been 2021.” –the Skimm
A deeply funny and shrewdly observed debut novel about being lost in the very place you know by heart.
Bennett Driscoll is a Turner Prize-nominated artist who was once a rising star. Now, at age fifty-five, his wife has left him, he hasn't sold a painting in two years, and his gallery wants to stop selling his work, claiming they'll have more value retrospectively...when he's dead. So, left with a large West London home and no income, he's forced to move into his artist's studio in the back garden and list his house on the popular vacation rental site, AirBed.
A stranger now in his own home, with his daughter, Mia, off at art school, and any new relationships fizzling out at best, Bennett struggles to find purpose in his day-to-day. That all changes when three different guests--lonely American Alicia; tortured artist Emma; and cautiously optimistic divorcée Kirstie--unwittingly unlock the pieces of himself that have been lost to him for too long.
Warm, witty, and utterly humane, Super Host offers a captivating portrait of middle age, relationships, and what it truly means to take a new chance at life.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Russo follows the travails of a divorced London painter turned apartment host in her witty, enjoyable debut. At 55, Bennett Driscoll's paintings are no longer fashionable, and his career and private life have been derailed. To make ends meet his gallery's director says she'll represent him again after he's dead Bennett rents out his large suburban London house on AirBed, an Airbnb-like site, and sleeps in his studio. He once scoured the Guardian for reviews of his work; now he reads reviews of his hosting and relishes his long-coveted AirBed status as Super Host while processing his recent divorce and trying to connect with his 18-year-old daughter. Russo is good at portraying female characters, particularly a series of tenants whose stories structure the novel, and who each make an impact on Bennett. There's Alicia, a young American woman; Emma, an artist who rents the house with her husband; and Kirstie, an unhappy, failed hotelier. Russo plumbs the depths of her characters' cynicism, which has taught them that men are indecisive and women remain primarily objects of sexual interest, and that to be a successful artist one needs to keep producing what sells. Russo is a formidable talent, and readers will be eager to see what she does next.
Customer Reviews
Heartfelt characters
Refreshing heartfelt characters. A pleasure to read. Hard to put down.
Nice premise, but…
Completely unlikeable, unsympathetic characters. Finished it, but really disliked the way it ended. The beginning showed so much promise, that was not fulfilled. Was hoping for much, much more and better.