THE BOOKSHOP

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I thoroughly enjoyed The Bookshop and would unreservedly recommend it to anyone who's into literary fiction. I loved this book for its poetic descriptions of the place (the marshes, the buidlings) and for creating a character (Mrs Green) that is as much courageous as she is tactful and kind. She is kind to Christine, her 10-year-old shop assistant, and she's even kind to those implicated in her downfall. No, Florence is not a fool; but she's not a very sensible person, either.

I started to read this because I was in the mood for a cozy book about a quaint English village bookshop, but soon found out I was in for something else altogether. While there are those touches of quaint cozy English village life (of which I know nothing personally), it's mainly about the rancor and spite that rises to the surface of the village when the bookshop opens. A good book is the precious life-blood of a master-spirit, embalmed and treasured up on purpose to a life beyond life, and as such it must surely be a necessary commodity.’ The Bookshop catches Fitzgerald coming into top form" said Peter Wolfe in Understanding Penelope Fitzgerald (2004). [5] Wolfe held the book to be a fully realized work of fiction that confirms the author's hold on actuality and the cogency of her satire. [6] In an introduction to a 2010 reprint, Frank Kermode wrote that the novel had won Fitzgerald "the respectful attention of reviewers and the admiration of a larger public". [7] Hermione Lee, Fitzgerald's biographer, considered the novel to be "a joyous exercise in precise, eloquent detail"; [8] a novel that "uses its small-scale comic plot for a serious moral argument". [9]La librería cuenta la historia de Florence Green, una mujer viuda de unos cuarenta años que decide abrir una librería en un minúsculo pueblo costero apartado del mundo. Dicho pueblo se caracteriza justamente por lo que no tiene. Florence adquiere un edificio que lleva años abandonado, comido por la humedad y que incluso tiene su propio poltergeist, Old House. Pero pronto se topará con la resistencia muda de las fuerzas vivas del pueblo que, de un modo cortés pero implacable, empezarán a acorralarla. Contratará como ayudante a una niña de diez años, la única que no sueña con sabotear su pequeño negocio. Un día, alguien le sugiere que ponga a la venta la polémica novela Lolita y, según la propia sinopsis, se desencadena en el pueblo un terremoto sutil pero devastador. I found this slight novel to be a pure delight to read. Turns out Penelope Fitzgerald herself managed a bookstore in, and she knew her subject matter well. This is an excellent story. It comes across as light at first, full of allusions to time (1959) and place (the eastern coast of England), and sprinkled with dark humor. I happily read along, very much enjoying the character of Florence Green setting out on her challenging venture.

That said, there is loads to like about most of the choices and this brief study in disillusion and small-town rivalries is no exception. Fitzgerald teeters on the edge of tweeness but her writing is unsentimental enough and her characters believable enough to cope with it. My favourite moments came in the unexpected flashes of local landscape and custom – the marshman filing a horse's teeth, the uninhabited housing development slowly falling off the cliffs, the matter-of-fact Suffolk poltergeist inhabiting the bookshop. Amusingly, the least worrisome of characters around town is the poltergeist that haunts the Old House. This inclusion is wonderfully charming as it is just an established fact that a ghost—dubbed ‘the rapper’ for their frequent and prolonged pounding sounds—exists and while they make themselves known from time to time it is hardly an intrusion. The true terrors of Hardborough are not a specter in the night but the daylight beasts of privilege and their conviction of deservedness to it. Two camps are slowly surfacing and dubious intentions become the name of the game. The kindhearted widow, Mrs. Green, does not understand the forces at work against her. Evil and greed do not make friends, neither do they embrace mercy or kindness. Politics is not for the soft-hearted. Small town politics are seldom for sissies. There’s another person who would be at home in an Iris Murdoch novel: tentacles extending far outside the community, with indirect ability to affect the lives of all, while maintaining the veneer of vague disinterest and occasional philanthropy.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...

Mientras más leía libro, más hechizada estaba. La narración me parecía tremendamente bella y me enamoré desde la primera página. Sabía que no era aburrida y que había más entre líneas, lo notaba en el ambiente. Luego lo comprobé cuando descubrí que ni siquiera el nombre de Florence Green fue una casualidad. “Green” simboliza a alguien inexperto, ingenuo, inocente, como lo es nuestra Florence. Pero no solo es así, no es tan plana, en serio. Ni lo son los habitantes del pueblo (al menos para mí, son simples, pero no planos). Volviendo a Florence será inexperta y buena, pero también valiente e ingeniosa. No todos abren una librería en un pueblo nada interesado en tener una. Y es que el propio señor Brundish le asegura que tiene coraje “en abundancia”. Y vaya si lo va a necesitar, porque aparece en escena Violet Gamart. ¿La antagonista, quizás? O puede que el antagonista sea el pueblo entero, no sé. La señora Gamart está empeñada en que Old House sea un centro para las Artes y no parará hasta conseguirlo. That person is balanced by the quiet, mostly unseen goodness of another, who also has “unseen roots” of information and possibly influence. They recognise each other’s power, but who will prevail? Mrs Green opens her book shop in a long abandoned old building and learns that a wealthy and influential (filthy rich and powerful) local harridan wants the old building for an “arts centre.” When our protagonist resists entreaties to find a different property or give up the venture altogether the villain sets into motion a scheme to displace her for good and all. There's nothing going for the book. I wasn't interested in the story despite trying with best efforts, the end was a let down, the beginning slow, the middle without direction. There is no climax either. It's seriously just 'suddenly there'. There's really no point to the novel - it's not even a book about failed dreams or anything really, or life lessons learned, it's just a depressing turnout that's not fair and not fair to read about. Even the assistant who the heroine cares for...well, I don't see what's so great about the 11 year old. She seems rude and distasteful to me. The weird thing is that I did care. I was thrilled when people lined up to buy the Nabokov book. I cheered when Florence found a champion in Mr. Brundish. My heart sank as the ending approached, that rather brutal ending.They’re saying that you’re about to open a bookshop. That shows you’re ready to chance some unlikely things.’ I hated the filthy rich woman, but I never developed much affection for Mrs Green either. The author failed to imbue her with any endearing qualities. I felt that I was more outraged at what was happening to Mrs Green than she was herself. There was no outburst of righteous indignation: “I’ve been wronged, damn it!” “I’m being persecuted!” The town folk are a motley crew who don’t seem to care much about this woman, her business or her situation. In a masterpiece of bad planning, the first novels by Penelope Fitzgerald I read were her last ones: The Beginning of the Spring, The Gate of Angels, & the The Blue Flower. Now reading a couple of her earlier ones, like this and At Freddie's I think Fitzgerald as a writer reached her peak quite late, or maybe didn't even reach it before her death. If The Bookshop is your introduction to Fitzgerald you have a treat before you, but for me, coming to it by the worst route, good though it is, I have the feeling that it could have been better. This is Penelope Fitzgerald’s second published book (1978); she had just begun writing 3 years prior at the age of 58. Reminds me of one of those people who start late (well, relative late for Penelope Fitzgerald) in life what makes them famous, be it artist or writer.

A small village, Hardborough, hardly surviving the harsh salted air and erosion of the ocean, becomes the choice for a new book shop to be opened by a widow, Florence Green. By all intentions, in 1959, it could have been an asset to the town, but it is soon obvious that Mrs. Green overstepped social boundaries by buying a building that Mrs. Violet Gamart, wife of general Gamart RET, wanted for other purposes. Besides this unforgivable faut pas, Mrs. Green also unknowingly interferes with the social leadership of the formidable arts doyenne, Mrs. Gamart. Another Fitzgerald? Hmm, will take some time to get over that Miserable Ending - and not sure if the pleasure of her writing will offset any further nasty plot twists. Florence has faith in the power of books to improve individuals and the community, but less faith in herself. She’s stoical and sometimes assertive. But she’s usually reactive, rather than proactive; she’s not a natural businesswoman. And she doesn’t trust her own judgement of literary merit, so we never learn much about her own tastes.At the age of ten and a half she knew, for perhaps the last time in her life, exactly how everything should be done.” UPDATE There's a 2017 film that's pretty nearly the book on film. If your library participates in Kanopy's free streaming service, the film is available there. It’s a good book and therefore you should try to sell it… They won’t understand it, but that is all to the good. Understanding makes the mind lazy.”