Stuart M. Ross’s novel The Hotel Egypt is equal parts a funny and irreverent satire of late-stage capitalism.
Ben Tanzer wrote of the book:
“Stuart Ross is the outer-borough pop culture love child of Jane Austen, Fran Lebowitz, and Whit Stillman, crafting literary-and literate, comedy of manners for modern consumption. What makes Ross’s work a must read, outside of the brilliant dialogue mind you, is the comedy so clearly emerges from a place of isolation and anger and the manners are so wholly lacking. To which I’d add-what could be more timely or contemporary than that? Not much.”
In his own words, here is Stuart M. Ross’s Book Notes music playlist for his novel The Hotel Egypt:
“Pictures of Adolf Again” by Bill Fay
Groovy dirge about one of the major themes of The Hotel Egypt: politics vs: spirit. In politics, we have no choice but to be ruled. In spirit, we are free. “Christ or Hitler?” Bill Fay sings. “That’s the choice, sooner or later.” “Christ or Vorster?” Today that might be, Christ or Netanyahu? “Christ or all the Caesars—all the J.D. Vancers—to come!” Choose Adolf, and you will be feted. Choose spirit, and you will be mocked. Not an easy lesson, but the song easily goes down, thanks to the bluesy noodling of guitarist Ray Russell.
“Majority” by Charles Ives
In 1922, Charles Edward Ives published at his own expense—no big deal, he made a ton of money—his 114 songs. He mailed copies to almost as many critics. I don’t think any of them wrote back.
“Majority,” the first song, keeps out those who won’t belong. The harsh dissonances, the masses of notes, never make sense as a whole. You have to sit with it and let the clusters invade your country.
In the score, as the vocal part begins, Ives darts the eye to a devious footnote: “preferably for a union chorus; it is almost impossible for a single voice to hold the part against the score.” The impossibility of the single voice holding its part against the masses. The performer whose performance is impossible, as it often was for Beethoven’s performers. As one soprano noted, when faced with an impossible part in the Missa Solemnis: “Well then, I suppose we must go on torturing ourselves in the name of god.” That’s how it should feel to write a novel.
“Upper West Side” by King Princess
Williamsburg born King Princess schelps all the way uptown for the lover in this song. Those UWS kids are too pretty,too rich, too nice—you despise them, but hope you get invited to their parties. The inspiration for The Hotel Egypt’s Ellory Allen is a winner like this. In the video, a cockroach skittles out of a sunflower, as if to say, even the vermin above 59th Street are lovely.
If I had a kid in the year 2000, that kid could’ve been King Princess; my child could’ve written this perfect song about the kids who dumped her dad in high school.
“Piano and String Quartet” by Morton Feldman
Late masterpiece from the godfather of haunted spa. To the contemporary ear, the opening sounds like the beginning of a Columbo episode. It’s not a piano quintet, mind you, as it would’ve been for Johannes Brahms, rather it’s a contest, or if you prefer, a collaboration. If you don’t have the patience to listen to all 75 minutes, I’ll spoil it for you: piano is the murderer.
“Disobedience” by Serpent Column
When the writing is over, you want somebody else’s creation myth. You could do much worse than Serpent Column, the one-man band of Detroit-based mastermind Theophonos. The website Machine Music described this bloodless cacophony as a “shooting ray of pain.” A reviewer on Metal Archives described it as “music that cannot be taken casually.” I would describe it as, “the kind of metal you make if you never heard heavy metal.” That’s my goal when I write a novel.
“Pink Rabbits” by The National
If you’ve ever been broken up with in public, you’ll relate to this one. The dumper “disappears into a crowd” and the dumpee becomes a girl in that crowd. Only the dumper enjoys the Instagram-ready solitude of “sitting in a fainting chair drinking pink rabbits.”
In The Hotel Egypt, Jenny Marks quotes this song to Ty after they break up in public. Later, Ty’s new wife Ellory Allen, “sleeps in a fainting chair that never leaves her shopping cart.”
“I was coming back, from what seemed like a ruin,” Matt Berninger sings. That’s how you should feel after you publish a book.
“Zulu Tolstoy” by Billy Woods
“Who is Tolstoy of the Zulus?” Saul Bellow asked. I’m not sure, it’s not my canon, and I wouldn’t ask such a racist question in the first place, but in The Hotel Egypt Ellory remarks that “John Muir is the James Baldwin of the mountains,” a line inspired by Bellow’s line, Woods’s title, the racist trope that people of color aren’t allowed in nature, and James Baldwin’s everyday canonization.
In other words, I’m “writing about him writing about him writing about that,” as Woods explains in this song about an indie rapper who thinks he’s gonna make it. Yeah, not gonna happen. Staying home is better, anyway. Staying home is better even when you do make it. Artists: don’t pretend leaving the house was ever a good idea.
Stuart M. Ross is the author of The Hotel Egypt and Jenny in Corona.