The follow-up to Parnassus On Wheels finds Roger Mifflin, travelling bookseller, holding down a storefront in post-WW1 Brooklyn, holding forth on his favorite topic (his passion for reading) to anyone who will listen. Apparently a few people actually agree with him, as a friend sends his daughter to do a bit of apprenticeship to "get some of the 'finishing school' nonsense out of her head". While she gets accustomed to the way things are done in her new trade, a book of Oliver Cromwell's speeches keeps popping in and out of its assigned place on the shelf, and after somebody almost pitches ad man Aubrey Gilbert off the Brooklyn Bridge in a burlap sack for being too nosy, he starts to suspect something sinister going on at the bookshop.[return][return]I do have to give you fair warning on a few points, especially if you go into this book without reading Parnassus first (which isn't completely necessary). Morley has the good grace to apologize up front the romantic subplot running away with the book at certain points when his original goal was to give us more Mifflin. If you can't get into the literary lifestyle, you might take issue with the chapters dedicated to the importance of books, complete with reading lists, then-current publishing trends, and the philosophies of various book sellers. However, if you're the type who gets into kicking around musty covers in secondhand stores, these may be the most interesting parts. Morely has a wonderfully descriptive style, which gives you a real sense of the place and the times. As was mentioned above, he throws in a decent dollop of adventure and (naturally) some digs at the ad game.[return][return](First posted: http://stuffnonsense.blogspot.com/2004/1...)