false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1173733585m/319388.jpg 319388 12 Since 1977, Penelope Fitzgerald has been quietly coming out with small, perfect devastations of human hope and inhuman (i.e., all-too-human) behavior. And now we have the opportunity to read "The Bookshop," her tragicomedy of provincial manners first published in 1978 in the U.K., but never available in the U.S. <i>The Bookshop</I> unfolds in a tiny Sussex seaside town, which by 1959 is virtually cut off from the outside English world. Postwar peace and plenty having passed it by, Hardborough is defined chiefly by what it doesn't have. It does have, however, plenty of observant inhabitants, most of whom are keen to see Florence Green's new bookshop fail. But rising damp will not stop Florence, nor will the resident, malevolent poltergeist (or "rapper," in the local patois). Nor will she be thwarted by Violet Gamart, who has designs on Florence's building for her own arts series and will go to any lengths to get it. One of Florence's few allies (who is, unfortunately, a hermit) warns her: "She wants an Arts Centre. How can the arts have a centre? But she thinks they have, and she wishes to dislodge you." <P> Once the Old House Bookshop is up and running, Florence is subjected to the hilarious perils of running a subscription library, training a 10-year-old assistant, and obtaining the right merchandise for her customers. Men favor works "by former SAS men, who had been parachuted into Europe and greatly influenced the course of the war; they also placed orders for books by Allied commanders who poured scorn on the SAS men, and questioned their credentials." Women fight over a biography of Queen Mary. "This was in spite of the fact that most of them seemed to possess inner knowledge of the court--more, indeed, than the biographer." But it is only when the slippery Milo North suggests Florence sell the Olympia Press edition of "Lolita" that Florence comes under legal and political fire. <P> Fitzgerald's heroine divides people into "exterminators and exterminatees," a vision she clearly shares with her creator--but the author balances disillusion with grace, wit, and weirdness, favoring the open ending over the moral absolute. Penelope Fitzgerald's internecine if gentle world view even extends to literature--books are living, jostling things. Florence finds that paperbacks, crowding "the shelves in well-disciplined ranks," vie with Everyman editions, which "in their shabby dignity, seemed to confront them with a look of reproach." One senses that classic hardcovers would welcome <i>The Bookshop</I>, despite its status as a paperback original. <i>--Kerry Fried</i> 310154 1978 The Bookshop: A Novel total:450|5:60|4:160|3:164|2:48|1:18| 450 1546 724 84 4 2 false false Tue Feb 01 00:00:00 -0800 2005 Thu Feb 26 09:40:36 -0800 2009 Thu Feb 26 09:40:51 -0800 2009
I...more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Mar 01 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Tue Mar 31 20:37:23 -0700 2009 Tue Mar 31 20:39:41 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Sun Apr 22 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Fri May 15 09:52:28 -0700 2009 Fri May 15 09:53:08 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Sun Jul 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Jul 16 05:41:04 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 27 03:23:47 -0700 2009
At around 150 pages The Bookshop is a work that can be devoured in a single sitting, and is intended to be. The Bookshop is perfect in every way. It is a literary masterpiece where every action, scene, sentence and image exists for a re...more...]]> 3 0 false false Thu Jun 04 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 08 04:25:56 -0700 2009 Mon Jun 08 04:43:52 -0700 2009 like a book about that? I...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jan 12 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 01 22:43:26 -0800 2009 Tue Jan 13 22:24:14 -0800 2009 more...]]> 4 1 false false Thu Aug 06 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Aug 06 10:24:23 -0700 2009 Tue Sep 29 17:45:30 -0700 2009 Washington Square. Oh, the cruelty! Fitzgerald is a new author to me. I'm going to start looking for her other books.]]> 1 1 false true Sun Aug 04 00:00:00 -0700 2002 Sat Apr 11 19:09:58 -0700 2009 Sat Apr 11 19:17:26 -0700 2009 more...]]> 5 0 false false Thu Sep 10 17:58:11 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 10 18:25:56 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Jul 18 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 20 10:56:52 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 20 11:06:14 -0700 2009 1 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Jul 12 09:35:30 -0700 2009 Sun Jul 12 09:44:30 -0700 2009 once more...]]> 2 2 false false Tue Apr 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sat Feb 21 22:55:29 -0800 2009 Tue Apr 07 18:17:56 -0700 2009
And it had a sad ending. Not worth it, in my opinion.]]> 4 0 false false Mon Feb 16 15:42:13 -0800 2009 Mon Feb 16 15:42:19 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false true Fri Jun 26 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 10 09:11:37 -0700 2009 Sat Oct 17 13:33:37 -0700 2009 1
The Bookshop was one of a very short list of books I found through the Library of Congress for the Subject Heading 'bookstores -- fiction'. Yes, I did you LOC's catalogue to fin...more...]]> 5 0 false false Wed Nov 12 20:38:27 -0800 2008 Sun Nov 23 19:18:39 -0800 2008
Penelope Fitzgerald, an English writer, died the year 2000 when she was in her eighties. She came from a cultured but po...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue May 06 16:01:51 -0700 2008 Tue May 06 16:01:51 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2000 Sat Mar 01 06:22:42 -0800 2008 Sat Mar 01 06:29:32 -0800 2008
"The Book Shop" is ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Jul 05 00:00:00 -0700 2000 Mon Feb 11 06:27:31 -0800 2008 Mon Feb 11 06:27:31 -0800 2008
One feels the necessity to look askance at any book whose author is compared to Anne Tyler (which seems to be happening a lot these days), but a couple of pages into Fitzgerald's darkly comic tale of political intrigue and I was ready to dit...more...]]> 5 0 false false Sat Aug 01 00:00:00 -0700 1998 Fri Aug 03 22:03:35 -0700 2007 Sun Jan 27 16:53:37 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue May 01 00:00:00 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 03 20:46:36 -0700 2007 Sun Jun 03 20:47:12 -0700 2007 more...]]> http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=319388