Book Review: The Bookshop (England, widow, small town bookstore)(OT)

The Bookshop, by Penelope Fitzgerald (Mariner Books, 1978, 156 pages, $14.95) (author is a Booker Prize winner and was also the recipient of National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction) Now a major motion picture* (2018).

Intriguing Cover

"Books Matter"

A small English town does not have a bookshop. A 10-year resident and widow purchases a very old house (centuries old) in the middle of town, moves in and opens a bookshop necessitating hiring a 10-year-old girl as a part-time assistant. 

"A Good Man Gone"

Replete with a Boy Scout troop, a fancy gala at the home of the retired General and his 'do-good wife,' a rather lazy BBC employee and his girlfriend, an old cantankerous gentleman in an even older house. Lolita has just been published and on the recommendation of the cantankerous old man, the bookshop owner, Florence Green, purchases 250 copies to sell, creating quite the sensation.

Just because a town does not have a bookshop, does it need one? Perhaps there is a reason why it does not have a bookshop. . . but, now, with said bookshop, how to close it down? 

Writing Style

Ms. Fitzgerald writes as the British author she is, with numerous words I had to guess at and even more references to British life (although I understood the references to the Royal Family and to Baden-Powell). Sentences were either short and easily comprehended or quite convoluted.

Book Club Selection

Written in 1978 and taking place even earlier, The Bookshop was a selection in my book club, therefore, I did finish it. Otherwise, I would not have read the entire book, short though it is at 157 pages.

Caveat: This book is available in our county public library system, along with the DVD. I would suggest reading the book first (I didn't). Reading the Introduction after finishing the book will make the reader more appreciative.

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