THE BOOKSHOP

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We recognize ourselves in this book and find it hard to admit our own roles, hence our aversion to the ending. A Rorschach test of reality we do not want to admit or face. Every summer and Easter, we holidayed in another village, a seaside one. A home away from home. We felt like honorary locals, but I doubt the villagers thought of us that way. Fitzgerald describes people from there, too. But apart from kindness, Florence also has tenacity, and the ending reflects this; rather than give in to despair, as a lesser person might have done, Florence moves on gracefully, though not without feelings of pain and disappointment. Although it seems effortlessly natural, I assume Fitzgerald gave everything she had. She certainly succeeded in creating a fascinating and believable community I care about. While I was reading this, I came across an archaic Shetland fishermen’s taboo word, sjusamillabakka, for the shifting, liminal space betwixt land and sea.

La librería no es un libro autobiográfico, pero sí bebe de la vida de la autora. Y es que ella estuvo viviendo en un pueblo costero. Llegó un momento en el que debido a numerosas deudas, tuvo que vender y los habitantes del pueblo que en un primer momento fueron amigos, le dieron la espalda. Qué casualidad, como a Florence. Y encima, la autora también era viuda. Me negué a creer que el libro sería aburrido. Y mientras lo leía, solo podía pensar “están pasando demasiadas cosas a la vez”. Sí, todo está metido en un ritmo muy lento, el libro es muy pausado pero al mismo tiempo están pasando mogollón de cosas (o al menos, así lo percibí yo): la apertura de la librería, las sonrisas falsas, la hipocresía, la presión social, los abogados incompetentes, el sobrino de la señora Gamart, Milo, la increíble Christine (y su hermosa relación con Florence), la inesperada amistad del señor Brundish, la expropiación de Old House… Y todo eso ocurre en menos de 200 páginas. Incluso la muerte pulula entre esas páginas. It is a weird book, since the ending is unexpected. The author has this unbelievable eye for detail that constantly blew me away. The reality of the ending is fitting, although I was hoping for something more 'acceptable'. I so wanted her, Mrs. Green, to live happily ever after. Alas, novels do not always end in fairy tales, and this is one of them. I think this ending reminds me too much of our own realities which we so often want to escape. :-) As a child I often said to my mother: "That's not fair!" She would respond with : "Life's not fair". Florence Green, the main character in The Bookshop, would certainly agree. A 2017 film adaptation entitled The Bookshop starred Emily Mortimer as Florence Green and was written and directed by Isabel Coixet.I was trying to remember who I have read recently who has a similar type of wit and I thought of Elizabeth Taylor (a lot of people do not know of her oeuvre), and I feel more confident in my assessment after reading the review by JacquiWine (link provided below). This is a bloodless yet nonetheless tragic martyr story meant to radicalize you to stand up for the dreamers and underdogs who want to believe morality and good-naturedness can be enough to succeed. Fitzgerald is watering the garden and here we are nearly 40 years later still needing her message because failure is not the end all and should not deter us, only embolden us to continue on the scaffolding of the fallen. Innocence may falter and is likely a kiss of death, which is tragic but only if we allow it to be. This is such a lovely ode to literature as well, and Lolita and its subversive powers figures prominently in the plot. Often for hilarious purposes. I love this book, plain and simple. It is brief but powerful and so eloquently written, and Fitzgerald has crafted a minor masterpiece. The Bookshop is a slim novel about an idealistic woman who is forced to battle small town politics. Florence Green, a courageous and kind widow, decides to open the first bookshop in the little town she lives in. She buys an abandoned house which she converts in a bookshop and her living quarters. The place is damp and supposedly haunted, but the tenacious woman manages to do quite well at the beginning. However, not everybody is happy about her success and a conflict will jeopardize everything she's worked for.

They’re saying that you’re about to open a bookshop. That shows you’re ready to chance some unlikely things.’

It was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 1978 — she attained that the next year by her novel, Offshore. Es un libro extraño porque no trata de crear grandes argumentos ni mostrarnos la valentía de la protagonista por sacar su negocio adelante, no, es la narración pacífica y tranquila de una mujer ya mayor tratando de navegar en aguas turbulentas. Creo que por eso mucha gente no consigue conectar con 'La librería', es un libro hecho de pequeños momentos, de apariciones de personajes que dejan mucho en el aire...