Assemble a stellar cast of talented individuals, and expect them to blend together into an effortless whole. It rarely works: witness the number of unsuccessful football teams composed largely of sulky strikers moving in parallel universes. Take the old reliable literary formulae - a novel, a collection of short stories - and try to create something substantially different. A novel in which the reader can choose his or her own ending. A novel written like a chain letter, with different writers anonymously picking up the story as it goes along. That rarely works either: formal considerations tend to take over, and the storytelling component gets lost in the mix.
In the original Finbar's Hotel, Dermot Bolger came up with a cheekily workable version of the collective storytelling conundrum - a series of stories placed in a shared setting, which could bump along together as amiably as sardines in a tin. And as a setting, the idea of a hotel was both blindingly simple and simply inspired: indeed, a hotel, with its motley collection of random individuals, its instantly identifiable personality, its uneasy mix of intimacy and anonymity, could stand as a metaphor for the entire risky enterprise. Through a mixture of careful selection of contributors, skilful editing of their contributions and - presumably - sheer force of personality, Bolger forged the idea into a likeable book. Storylines were picked up as smoothly as batons in an Olympic relay race. Delightfully wacky details were carried from one contributor's "bit" to the next. No sulky strikers need apply.
A good idea is always a good idea, of course, so a second volume was always on the cards; and sure enough, Finbar's Hotel is back, this time with a stellar cast of women writers and a lick of paint. Or, as the blurb has it, "Dublin's legendary Finbar's Hotel has undergone a transformation to keep pace with that city's reputation as the nightlife capital of Europe. Gone are the cubbyholes where deals were brokered and indiscretions covered up. Now, a magnificent new edifice of white leather and chic chrome welcomes the Celtic Tiger elite."
Yuck, you might think, and rightly so. But wait: the blurb redeems itself with a brilliant final sentence. "Nuns, thugs and rock stars jostle in the corridors, while the staff struggle to cope with their guests and the cocaine-snorting proprietor." Nuns, thugs and rock stars - contemporary Ireland in five syllables. Never mind the stellar cast: whoever composed that sentence, take a bow at once. But what's it all about? Well, it would be all too easy to give the game away, so let's just say that there's a hilarious reworking of the old immaculate conception theme, a bittersweet confrontation between a daughter and her loopy father, a poignant encounter involving a long-married couple, and a cracking finish which features an ageing film star, a movie called Gonne with the Wind and - oh, bliss, oh, joy - a Celtic tiger.
And if that's not enough to keep you amused, you can always play "who wrote what?", matching authors Maeve Binchy, Clare Boylan, Emma Donoghue, Anne Haverty, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne, Kate O'Riordan and Deirdre Purcell to the seven "chapters". Ultimately, though, it doesn't matter who wrote what: together, they've produced a playful, light, highly entertaining book.
Arminta Wallace is an Irish Times journalist
