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Leon Prevant is a former shipping executive and Alkaitis investor. He first meets Jonathan Alkaitis while he and his wife, Marie, are vacationing at the Hotel Caiette, which Jonathan owns. Leon booked their stay as an anniversary surprise, but he’s consumed with financial woes related to the fear that he’s likely to lose his job as a consequence of a merger. Leon’s financial anxieties convince him to invest with Alkaitis. When the Ponzi scheme Alkaitis is operating collapses in late 2008, Leon and Marie lose their savings, their home, and their former way of life. Unable to keep up with their mortgage payments, they choose to move across the country in an RV, taking odd jobs wherever they can find them to support themselves. Though Leon and Marie are grateful to have each other, their new transient lifestyle is always on the brink of collapse, and Leon mourns the “anchored,” safer existence they once had. When Leon’s former junior colleague at the shipping company (and the woman who replaced him when he was let go), Miranda, hires him on a consulting basis to serve as a witness to the investigation of Vincent’s death (Vincent was working as a chef onboard the Neptune Cumberland, one of Miranda’s company’s container ships), Leon enthusiastically accepts, not fully admitting that his indirect connection to Vincent might be a conflict of interest. Although the ship’s steward, Felix Mendoza, provides compelling evidence to implicate Vincent’s boyfriend, Geoffrey Bell, in her disappearance, the lead investigator, Michael Saparelli, convinces Leon to ignore Mendoza’s testimony, arguing that Leon will not be called back for more consulting work if he causes a publicity scandal for the shipping company. Leon’s desire for stability ultimately undermines his desire to be morally just and provide Vincent with the thorough, fair investigation she deserves.
Leon Prevant Quotes in The Glass Hotel
The The Glass Hotel quotes below are all either spoken by Leon Prevant or refer to Leon Prevant. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 11: Winter
Quotes
One of our signature flaws as a species: will risk almost anything to avoid looking stupid.
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Chapter 13: Shadow Country
Quotes
But they were citizens of a shadow country that in his previous life he’d only dimly perceived, a country located at the edge of an abyss. He’d been aware of the shadowland forever, of course. He’d seen its more obvious outposts: shelters fashioned from cardboard under overpasses, tents glimpsed in the bushes alongside expressways, houses with boarded-up doors but a light shining in an upstairs window. He’d always been vaguely aware of its citizens, people who’d slipped beneath the surface of society, into a territory without comfort or room for error; they hitchhiked on roads with their worldly belongings in backpacks, they collected cans on the streets of cities, they stood on the Strip in Las Vegas wearing T-shirts that said GIRLS TO YOUR ROOM IN 20 MINUTES, they were the girls in the room. He’d seen the shadow country, its outskirts and signs, he’d just never thought he’d have anything to do with it.
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Leon Prevant Quotes in The Glass Hotel
The The Glass Hotel quotes below are all either spoken by Leon Prevant or refer to Leon Prevant. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 11: Winter
Quotes
One of our signature flaws as a species: will risk almost anything to avoid looking stupid.
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Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 13: Shadow Country
Quotes
But they were citizens of a shadow country that in his previous life he’d only dimly perceived, a country located at the edge of an abyss. He’d been aware of the shadowland forever, of course. He’d seen its more obvious outposts: shelters fashioned from cardboard under overpasses, tents glimpsed in the bushes alongside expressways, houses with boarded-up doors but a light shining in an upstairs window. He’d always been vaguely aware of its citizens, people who’d slipped beneath the surface of society, into a territory without comfort or room for error; they hitchhiked on roads with their worldly belongings in backpacks, they collected cans on the streets of cities, they stood on the Strip in Las Vegas wearing T-shirts that said GIRLS TO YOUR ROOM IN 20 MINUTES, they were the girls in the room. He’d seen the shadow country, its outskirts and signs, he’d just never thought he’d have anything to do with it.
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