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A review by phyllied
The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald
1.0
Why, oh why, must I keep learning the same lesson? Because I'm insane? No, because I *keep* picking up Mann Booker Prize nominations or winners and reading them. DUMB. I am pressed to think of any books in said prize-nominated/winning category that weren't awful or pretentious or impenetrable.
A librarian friend said that she never reads books about libraries or book stores any longer because they inevitably disappoint. I, too, have found this to be the case with few exceptions. Which, if we review the first paragraph is yet *another* instance of persisting in actions and expecting a different result than what happens 90% of the time.
Queue the Einstein quote.
"The Bookshop" was nominated for the Mann Booker Prize and is set in a bookshop..ding ding ding!
Why did I find this book so awful despite glowing reviews from so many? First, the writing style is very odd. Oddity isn't a black mark, but it is when it's unnecessarily disjointed. Not having read any of Penelope Fitzgerald's other books, I'm not sure whether this style is intended to represent the dysfunctional town or whether this is her style. To be fair, I have another one of her books on hand to see if I can get behind all of the hoopla.
The characterization is also lacking. What better base can a writer have than a small town to fill with interesting personalities? Instead, we have Florence Green, an older woman who decides to take on the wealthy town socialite by opening a bookshop in a long-empty house. We never learn why exactly she wants a bookshop other than wanting a new endeavor, and we certainly don't learn why she puts up such a fight (the wrangle with the lawyers is pretty amusing and shows what Ms. Fitzgerald could do). We have a rambunctious 11-year old shop assistant from a family of known hard workers who goes off the rails. We have a poltergeist-infested bookstore, which could also have been taken somewhere, but where does it go? Ugh.
The ending was dismal, which fits in with the dying mill town and the likelihood that an average woman could win against the filthy rich with a money-losing enterprise. It isn't that I minded an unhappy ending, but it's that there seemed to be no point to anything (other than the aforementioned glimmer) and it seemed to me that nihilism wasn't what the author was going for. Oh, well. At least, I got a bit closer to my 2017 Goodreads Reading Challenge!
A librarian friend said that she never reads books about libraries or book stores any longer because they inevitably disappoint. I, too, have found this to be the case with few exceptions. Which, if we review the first paragraph is yet *another* instance of persisting in actions and expecting a different result than what happens 90% of the time.
Queue the Einstein quote.
"The Bookshop" was nominated for the Mann Booker Prize and is set in a bookshop..ding ding ding!
Why did I find this book so awful despite glowing reviews from so many? First, the writing style is very odd. Oddity isn't a black mark, but it is when it's unnecessarily disjointed. Not having read any of Penelope Fitzgerald's other books, I'm not sure whether this style is intended to represent the dysfunctional town or whether this is her style. To be fair, I have another one of her books on hand to see if I can get behind all of the hoopla.
The characterization is also lacking. What better base can a writer have than a small town to fill with interesting personalities? Instead, we have Florence Green, an older woman who decides to take on the wealthy town socialite by opening a bookshop in a long-empty house. We never learn why exactly she wants a bookshop other than wanting a new endeavor, and we certainly don't learn why she puts up such a fight (the wrangle with the lawyers is pretty amusing and shows what Ms. Fitzgerald could do). We have a rambunctious 11-year old shop assistant from a family of known hard workers who goes off the rails. We have a poltergeist-infested bookstore, which could also have been taken somewhere, but where does it go? Ugh.
The ending was dismal, which fits in with the dying mill town and the likelihood that an average woman could win against the filthy rich with a money-losing enterprise. It isn't that I minded an unhappy ending, but it's that there seemed to be no point to anything (other than the aforementioned glimmer) and it seemed to me that nihilism wasn't what the author was going for. Oh, well. At least, I got a bit closer to my 2017 Goodreads Reading Challenge!