March 2018 Reading

This term I have read with my students “The Bookshop” by P. Fitzgerald, a brilliant and powerful book, which once again proved that she is a writer with more than “a touch of genius” (Byatt). It is in this book that Florence Green hopes that human beings “are not divided in to exterminators and exterminatees, with the former, at any given moment, predominating.” She, herself, becomes helpless in the face of people’s cruelty and “the tragedy of misunderstanding” among people. Valentine Cunningham is right, calling the book “a little gem, a vintage narrative.” This courageous woman’s love for books is inspiring. Her quoting Milton’s “A good book is the precious lifeblood of a master spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life” is unfortunately wasted on the residents of Hardborough, a very meaningful imaginary name for the setting in the novel. The end of the book is very poignant “with her head bowed in shame, because the town in which she had lived for nearly ten years had not wanted a bookshop.” It is hard to express “the aching pleasure” (from Keat’s Ode on Melancholy) one gets from reading The Bookshop.”And one’s heart is stopped at the ironic gap between the good old words and the awful present reality, sobered yet once more at this potently slim novel’s indictment of small-time Little Englandism successfully doing it philistine worst.” (Valentine Cunningham) And finally I’d like to quote one of my student’s promise in her reflective essay after having read the novel; “I promise to read all the books written on earth, because with the words I will be able to fly and hunt the demons and travel through fantasy worlds until the Death of Angel comes after me…” Penelope would be happy to hear this. In one of her interviews she calls the book to be “the loveliest thing on earth.”