Monday, February 8, 2010

Five-Star Fleecing-Maura Stone

Five-Star Fleecing
Maura Stone
A WinS Publication, Dec 2009, $25.00
www.maurastone.com
ISBN: 9781449932299

In 1995 after losing her legal position at a firm doing questionable practices, Linda Lane obtains a job as assistant resident manager at the Manhattan luxurious Supreme Superior Hotel. Her boss Herr Ganiff explains the rules of working at a five-star hotel and assigns her to work up a plan on how to keep their high rollers happy while also bringing in some middle income.

However, Linda observes all sorts of questionable practices at the hotel owned in absentia by a Japanese trio. In fact, she sees theft, poor handling of guests and a management team that takes care of itself exclusively. As she tries to ignore what she observes, Linda thinks of her father who told her to never back down from an ethics scenario as she did as a lawyer.

This is a superb scathing satire of the hospitality business at a time when Wall St. is in the news with Too Big To Fail bonuses to many of those who failed. The cast is eccentric and over the top of the Empire State Building with me-me attitudes that stun idealistic newcomer Linda Lane who cannot understand the philosophy that the guest must not get in the way of bonuses. Maura Stone provides a well written tale of avarice, American style of capitalism.

Harriet Klausner

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