Jeselnik Book Club: 'The Glass Hotel' Book Review + Q&A

Jeselnik Book Club

Anthony Jeselnik discusses his transition to The Ringer and the expansion of his book club into a weekly podcast format. He provides an exte

Key takeaways

Jeselnik has moved his production to The Ringer, which is part of Spotify.
The plot of 'The Glass Hotel' spans multiple decades, including 1958, 1994, 1999, 2005, 2008, 2009, 2013, 2015, and 2018.

Main topics

Podcast transition to The Ringer
The Glass Hotel plot analysis

Notable quotes

It's basically Spotify, but it's like the cool version of Spotify.

Conclusion

A comprehensive deep-dive into a complex novel that serves as both a l

Transcript preview

Speaker 1 (0:04) Hey, Anthony Jeselnik here with September's Jeselnik Book Club recap of The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel. I'm excited to talk about this book. It is a difficult one. It's a great story, but it's all over the place. They go year to year. I'm going to be looking at my notes a lot. Before we get into the book and how much I love this book, I think we should talk about what's different. Last month, if you have listened to all of these, I announced there would be some changes coming that were not mine to announce. I am working under a higher power. At this point, I am here at the ringer. Some people know what that is. Everyone I know knows what that is. Some people did not. It's Spotify. It's basically Spotify, but it's like the cool version of Spotify. It's not TV. It's HBO. Think about it like that. Speaker 1 (1:10) People wondered why I came here to the network. They came to me. When I decided to do this book club at the beginning of the year, I was hoping for the best and preparing for the worst. I didn't know if anyone would be into it, if people would watch these videos, if people would like the videos, if people would continue, if it would grow. And I was shocked at how much people were engaged with Jessalynik Book Club from the beginning. I was even more surprised. pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed doing Jesselnik Book Club. The first video in January, I'm shooting in my manager's conference room on an iPhone and loved it. Did it in one take, did it in under an hour, was pleasantly surprised at the questions I was asked, felt good talking about the book. I enjoy reading a book I loved for the second time and bringing my knowledge to people who are reading it for the first time. But I immediately knew that I enjoyed this, and I was happy that the audience stayed with me. And then as we kept going, I just kept enjoying it more and more. The audience would grow. And pretty quickly, two or three months in, The Ringer came to me. I assumed I would do this for a year, get 12 of these done, see if I still enjoyed it, and then maybe shop it around as a podcast. And at the time, it would have been a monthly thing, just like I was doing. I enjoy my life as a touring stand-up comedian. In fact, go to justlinink.com right now, anthonyjustlinink.com, and look up the tour dates. They're selling out, and I'm having a hell of a time on tour. I love my new hour. I have a job. This was like a side hustle, but I liked it the more that I did it, and the ringer came to me and said, make it a podcast, and we took months to negotiate because they were thinking, hey, do you want to do it weekly? And I'm like, no, a monthly book club is, that's how book clubs work. And then a couple months in negotiation, one of my good friends who's going to be on the podcast coming up was coming through town on a book tour with his new book. And he said, would you come to Skylight Books in LA and interview me as part of my book tour? And I had never done that before. I had never interviewed an author. If you know my podcast experience, I've never interviewed anyone. But I went and did this interview at a bookstore and had the time of my life. It was funny. It was fun. It was easy to do. It felt organic and natural the way this book club has felt natural to me. And I love doing it so much and had so much fun. And my friend was like, oh, you did a great job. I've never done a book interview like this. It was almost like a book roast. And I was like, oh, that's just how I talk. And after that interview, I realized I could do this every week. And so I signed with The Ringer to do a weekly podcast. We'll do four of these a month. And I'm not going to expect you to read four books a month. But the goal is still to get you to read. The goal is still to get you to read 12 books a year. Again, my audience is 85 % men. I'm pitching two guys. But the ladies, you're welcome to. You know, you're welcome to follow along. And again, we've picked very diverse books here at Jessalyn Book Club. I think everyone is enjoying it. But I will also be talking to people who have new books coming out, people who wrote books that were in my last year's top 10 are going to come on. And I'm very excited to talk to these authors. I'm honored that they want to come on and talk to me. I hope I can sell some books for them. I hope that by listening to us talk, you were not only entertained, but it makes you want to buy the book. I think that we'll read the book. I think that. the more you follow along with the book club as it goes to weekly here at The Ringer, that you will just think about reading more. With a book club, it's like I'm giving you 12 books to read. But if you're hearing about a different book every week, you will learn more of what's out there. And maybe you'll want to read 14 books a year. Maybe you'll be like, oh, that one sounds good. It sounds better than the one before it. I don't really care. I'm going to be giving you a lot. I'm going to be throwing you a new book every week. with either a friend I'm talking to, we got Greg Rosenthal coming up next week, spoiler alert, and we'll be talking about Life of M a little bit, and then just kind of messing around. But then I have authors coming on talking about their own books. Again, I'm not expecting you to read everything before they come out. Sometimes we're talking to them before the book actually hits the streets. That's how far inside I am. And I just love being at The Ringer. Again, we did not shop this around. The Ringer came to me. I knew a couple people here, and the more people that I have met, the more I have enjoyed this. I know the names of five people on staff. Paige, Noah, Daniel, Mags, Bill. That's unheard of for me on a staff, and I have gotten no notes from the ringer. So I am thrilled to be here at the ringer. Nothing is going to change. Book club wise except we're in a nicer room. I've got support I've got authors coming up that I cannot believe want to come talk to me that I never would have been able to schedule Put things together So I think things are just gonna get a lot better here at the ringer. You can still go to my website Anthony just link calm put in your email address. I'll keep sending that email the book club itself is not going to change. Once a month, you'll send in your emails. I will answer them just like this. But every week, I think it's going to keep getting better with authors, friends, celebrities, people talking about reading in a way that will make you want to read even more than you are with the book club. Again, the goal is to get people to read. I think that the more entertaining this podcast is, and I've got a whole team of people trying to make it as entertaining as possible. I mean, it's almost impossible to get an entertaining conversation out of Greg Rosenthal. We're going to find a way with the team that we have, and you have me. So I'm going to be recapping these books at the end of every month, and we're going to have a weekly podcast on Wednesdays, talking books, talking to authors that I am thrilled to talk to. People are coming out of the woodwork trying to get on this show, and we haven't even premiered yet. This is the premiere. So I'm turning down people that I'm just like, you're not good enough. You haven't won the accolades that you need to sit across from me and talk to me about your book. And I'm going to read all these books. I'll be reading everything. So I'm only going to give you books that I really liked. You can read them all if you want and be a superstar. Or you can just read the 12 books we've got in the regular Jessalyn Book Club. But we're not for the long haul. I'm on a one-year deal with two options that The Ringer has. I'm allowed to quit whenever I want. But again, I didn't start this for the money. I'm not doing it for the money now. I make a lot of money doing stand-up comedy. I won't tell you how much I'm making here, but when I told my business manager how much I was making here, he did not put it in my annual budget. That's what we're working with. This is still for the love of the game I just now have a great support system and I've been lost miss Kim miss Kim's right there Miss Kim used to be standing behind an iPhone now She's sitting over there and a comfortable seat waiting for me to mess something up so she can correct me So we just have it's just gonna get better. We are not changing We are accelerating and I'm excited to be here for now. I can see in a month me just blowing my top and ending all of this. But for now, I'm thrilled. So I hope you guys enjoy me at the Ringer. I hope you continue to, you can continue to watch the show on YouTube like you have been. The other episodes will just be on YouTube. If you're a member of Spotify, if that's how they call it. Again, I've never listened to a podcast in my life. I've never watched one in my life. But you can continue to watch it on my YouTube channel. If you go to Spotify, you can now listen to it as a podcast and watch it. But you can listen to it on anywhere else that you get your podcasts. So we are just getting a little bit bigger. I would like to have a little more reach than we did before. And that's why I am here at The Ringer. But again, there were no other suitors. It was like, do I want to just keep doing this in my living room? with Miss Kim or do I want to go somewhere with a bigger reach and I think I'm going to bring The Ringer a whole new audience. Okay people who wear graduation caps on the regular are going to be watching The Ringer now so I think they're happy to have me a real comedian and I'm happy to be here for sure. So that is why I'm at The Ringer but now let's get to the real star. The month that is the glass hotel by Emily st. John Mandel. They told me to describe the cover of the book The lawyers in order to not get sued. I think that's very funny. So I'm gonna do it. It's a little island You don't even see the glass hotel Maybe it's just see-through But we got an island here and it says the glass hotel by Emily st. John Mandel Best-selling author of station 11 again. This is my one of my favorite books of hers She had written Station Eleven, which was the first book I read of hers. She wrote kind of a sequel to this called The Sea of Tranquility. And she's got a new one out right now called Exit Party that came out two weeks ago that is an absolute banger. Might have surpassed The Glass Hotel for my favorite in the Mandelverse, if you will. And we want to get Emily St. John Mandel on the show at some point. She's in New York. No plans to come to LA. And I don't do Zoom. We don't do Zoom here at Jaisal McBook Club. That's not a thing. Let's get into the glass hotel. Let's do a plot recap and again, this is gonna be tough this this book takes place in like six different times Throughout and they jump around so I'm gonna kind of just go off what I remember what really sticks out to me I'll try to get the years right We start and it said I think the book starts with we start at the end It is Vincent drowning Vincent's falling over a boat and again, it's very sensory this opening chapter She's hitting the cold water. She loses her breath. She doesn't know which way is up or down. Her life is flashing before her eyes. And you don't know this is her death just yet. If she could get saved at some point, you just know that she is in trouble. She is in the water and she is looking over her life. cut to Vincent it's a night now. This is 2018 that she's drowning falling off this boat And I think this book came out in 2018. Let me go back to 1994 Vincent is a teenager She is at school and she is writing with a acid tipped marker or something I did not know existed on a window of the school. She's writing sweep me up Just a song lyric. She liked I think it's some kind of there was a A philosopher, Knossgaard, if I'm saying that correctly, Knossgaard, I don't know. I'm not into philosophy, but I have seen the notes that she writes. Sweep me up on this in acid pen. You can't fix that. You got to get a new window. Her brother, her half-brother, Paul, comes around the corner, sees her doing this. Too late to stop her. They go home. The school's already called the house. Vincent's in trouble. She's getting suspended. and Paul is also in trouble. And Paul has been kind of in and out of rehab for heroin, and they're not happy with Paul for letting this happen. They don't think it's a good idea to have them together. Paul kind of gets banished, and Vincent goes to live with an aunt, I believe, in either Vancouver or Toronto. I want to say Vancouver, because it goes to see the aunt in Vancouver. This original thing is happening on an island off of Vancouver. Beautiful place. where they are starting to build a glass hotel. This is, again, in 1994. Then we cut to 1999. This is one of my favorite parts of the whole book. Paul is now, he's been out of rehab a few times. He has been addicted to heroin. He is now 23 years old as like a freshman in college. I think University of Toronto. And it's hard for him to make friends. Again, he's older than everybody else. And he's a former heroin addict. They're not the most fun people to hang with. So he's kind of lonely. He's looking for something to do. He goes to see a band. He goes to see this band called Baltica that will play a factor. And he immediately falls in love. He thinks they're okay, but he falls in love with the lead singer, this gorgeous woman who sings and plays the violin. He's into them. Afterwards, he tries to talk them up a little bit. She's one of those women who's so gorgeous, she knows everyone's hitting on them. And she kind of blows them off. But they say, hey, we go hang out at this bar sometimes. That's cool. Paul a couple days later goes to this bar. I think Tuesday nights is where it's at He scores some ecstasy off a stranger. He gets like four pills. He takes one of them and has a real bad trip He has an awful time. He feels sick, but he's like maybe it's just me Maybe I just had a bad reaction to it He gets to they send him out of the bar after closing and like what have you took didn't agree with you? He's like you're right. I should I'm better off sober goes a couple weeks later to the bar sees Baltica They're there. It's a three-man band. It's Annika, I believe, and then a guy named Charlie Wu is the keyboardist, and then another guy. And they're friendly to Paul. They remember him from meeting him. Paul asks out Annika, and she's like, no, but it never hurts to ask. They're like, okay. He's like, hey, would you guys like some ecstasy? He's like, I bought these a while ago. It's not really my thing. I don't sell drugs. I don't want to sell them, but would you like these? And Annika's like, oh, I took those like a week ago. She kind of gives the thumbs up that these are okay to take she takes one Charlie Wu takes two and Then Charlie Wu dies like an hour later his heart stops He dies on the dance floor Which I think to me was like insane to me to start the book out this way even more than Vincent drowning or Vincent graffiti window is that I Can see this happening in college you get some drugs from someone you pass them out to somebody and someone dies because of you He feels horrible and he takes the fuck off, which is understandable. He's not doing that well at Toronto. The people from Baltica don't know him. They only know his name, Paul. He just leaves like that night. I think it's like a night or two before New Year's Eve. He flees the city, calls his aunt trying to look for Vincent, who he has not talked to in a while or in years maybe. The aunt says, Vincent's moved out. Vincent's so independent. I couldn't keep you here. She didn't even finish high school. She left. He tracks her down, finds Vincent living with her roommate. I think it's the same girl who was with her when she drew on the glass window in high school, wrote Sweep Me Up. And they go out to a party, and Paul is haunted. Paul feels like shit from killing a random keyboardist. And wherever they go, they go into a nightclub, and he hears a remix of Baltica. And he's like, I've got to get out of here. He goes outside. He's just shivering in the cold because he can't go in. They go to another club. And he sees Charlie Wu, the guy who died. He sees like the guy dancing in the club or just staring at him. He's like, it's a packed club. Is it him? It's not. This is like a theme throughout the book of just ghosts of the people that you're either killed flat out or whose lives you have affected are haunting you. That guilt kind of never leaves you and chases you down. We're going to go back and go forward into the future to 2005. Oh, and you know what? Real quick. While this story is being told about Paul killing a guy accidentally with the wrong drugs and going to see his sister, fucking things up with his sister when you should have been looking out for her and she's vandalizing windows, he is talking to a therapist. He is talking to someone where it seems like he's on the other side of things. And you can't tell here how far on the other side. You know, he like gets away with killing a guy, but you don't know if it's taking place in like the far future or just like a couple years. But at this point, Paul is sober and is looking back with the clarity of someone who has gone through their addiction. And I like that when that happens in a book, because you know at least Paul gets out of this okay. And it gives you kind of different perspective on the story that he's telling. We're going to go to 2005 now. Okay, it's six years after Paul and Vincent have reconnected. And it's a tenuous reconnection. They are kind of envious. They don't really get along. I think Paul's dad cheated on his mom with a beautiful hippie. And the hippie had Vincent. So he kind of blames Vincent for kind of breaking up the marriage. She's a half-sister. She is beautiful and self-possessed and confident. These are things that Paul lacks himself. He probably thinks Vincent would be an amazing musician if she wanted to be, but he just can't believe that she doesn't have the insecurities that he has while he's taking heroin. And they don't really get a chance to connect as kids. I think they have one conversation where he tells her that he's been in and out of rehab for heroin and she goes wide-eyed, but he can't give her more. He's so ashamed that he just kind of leaves the room and they don't talk again until 1999 when they're all worried about Y2K and shit. But she is cool. And you go to 2005 and now Paul and Vincent are working in. Oh, I got to go back again. Vincent's mom dies. Vincent's mom dies in a kayaking accident or possible suicide. Vincent's mom goes out on a kayak. She knows what she's doing. She lives on Vancouver Island. She goes kayaking all the time. And then one day she's gone. One day she goes out and they find the body like a day or two later. And she knew what she was doing. So everyone, it's a mystery. They really don't, can't say it's a suicide, but they can't say it's an accident either. And that really fucks Vincent up. And that's the reason that Paul is even there with her. That's the reason she's drawing on windows. Like she's having a hard time because of the loss of her mother. So now we're in 2005. We are in the Glass Hotel. It has a name. It doesn't matter. No one cares. Everyone calls it the Glass Hotel. It's one of those places that's in the middle of nowhere. It's on this island in Vancouver that's almost impossible to get to.