Abcde BLOG

Well, it looks as though I'm finally starting on the British books that are not mysteries.  And I just got a whole list of possible "to reads" from Darlene over at Roses Over a Cottage Door.  I like her taste!  This selection is actually one I found on her past reading lists.

The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald


This was a fabulous but heartbreaking book.  It's one of those books of quiet tragedy and injustice that I seem to be drawn to.

The book is short, only 117 pages in the edition I was reading, but it is nevertheless a complete unit.  The story follows Mrs. Florence Green, a 40-ish widow who lives in a small town in East Anglia.  As a young woman, she worked at a bookshop, and she wants to open one in her new home.  She scrapes together her savings and gets a loan from the bank to by the Old House.  We follow Florence through almost two years of changing alliances and friendships.  We see her spirit and her generosity.  We also see the casual heartlessness of village life and the sort of butterfly effect that is so prevalent in small towns.

The opening sentence of the Amazon.com review says it better than I could:

Since 1977, Penelope Fitzgerald has been quietly coming out with small, perfect devastations of human hope and inhuman (i.e., all-too-human) behavior.

I will be adding more Fitzgerald to my reading list in the near future.  Thanks Darlene!