The Enders Hotel is a memoir about growing up in the small town of Soda Springs, Idaho. Brandon's family owned the town hotel along with its cafe and bar, so he lived in the hotel. Since Soda Springs is in the middle of boom-and-bust mining country, and since Brandon's grandfather founded the local AA chapter, the hotel was a waystation for many colorful characters.
The book provides a vivid portrait of a fairly ordinary childhood in an out of the way place. There is very little narrative drive, just a string of incidents. The cast of down-on-their-luck characters (Brandon's family included) makes the story feel like it takes place during the depression or immediately post-WWII, so it was always a bit of a shock when Brandon made contemporary references like going to see the movie Gandhi or listening to Motley Crue. In fact, Brandon was born in 1972 so the story takes place mostly in the 1980s.
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