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- General fiction - |
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The Bookshop |
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 The Bookshop byPenelope Fitzgerald Houghton Mifflin 123 pages, 1997 ISBN 0395869463 Reviewed by Julie Failla Earhart The time is 1959. The place is Hardborough, England. Widow Florence Green wants to open a bookstore in the tiny hamlet. The spot she has chosen for her new venture is a 500-year-old building, known to the locals as the Old House. Built of earth, sticks, straw, and oak beams, the Old House leaks, has seawater in its cellar, and is inhabited by a seemingly friendly poltergeist. The out building that she had hoped to use as a warehouse is unusable. It is too damp to store books. These problems alone would be enough to discourage anyone else, but Florence is determined. What she doesn't expect is to have her endeavor thwarted by the townspeople. Mrs. Gamart, the local art enthusiast, believes the Old House should be used as a community art gallery. Local business people, many of whom have businesses that are failing due to a bad economy, want to see Florence flounder also. Then there are merchandising problems, including what to keep in stock; personnel problems, with an assistant that is only 10 years old and various distribution problems. Florence does have one ally - the town recluse who has given his blessing to the venture. The story culminates when Florence creates a window display featuring the latest bestseller Lolita. The Bookshop captures everyday life in vivid clarity. Florence is an average, ordinary woman - trying to make her dream come true. The novel's beauty lies in its ability to display the ordinariness of life and the manner in which it is lived day to day. Fitzgerald does a remarkable job of illustrating just how truly mean and spiteful people can be to each other. Personally, I would have liked to read a little more about the poltergeist. The mention of the ghost, without actually delving into its story, left me feeling a tad let down, but overall it was a good read for the character development alone. |
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