Fitzgerald's Bookshop

 

The Book Shop / Penelope Fitzgerald
Boston: Mariner Books, 1997, c1978.
123 p.

Ah, opening a bookshop! Isn't it everyone's dream? (I tried it myself at one point; harder than it looks). In this book, probably fairly well known now thanks to the movie, Florence Green decides to start a bookshop in Hardborough. 

This is 1959, it's a small seaside town, and Florence decides to take her widow's inheritance and start a bookshop, because of course a town without one desires one! But she encounters many, many obstacles. First off, a cold, old building with a damp cellar - and apparently a poltergeist too. And then suspicious locals. And envious shopkeepers once she begins to become a bit of a success. And spite from the local woman who considers herself the artistic arbiter of the area, and doesn't like someone else claiming culture. 

Because it's Fitzgerald writing I didn't expect any goodness to be rewarded, or for the powerful and selfish to do anything but succeed in their bullying. And, well, I was right. I do find her quite bleak and cynical a lot of the time. Even though her writing is sharp, crisp, acidic and never sentimental, which can be refreshing. She has an eye for the ways in which people reveal who they are, and the ways in which privilege corrupts. The insularity of this small town, and the ways in which those with connections rule the roost, even if they are unworthy of it, is finely drawn here. 

The highlights of this story are the bookish bits. Any reader will enjoy the discussion of the books themselves, while as a librarian and former bookseller, the parts about the day to day operations of the shop were entertaining and relatable. 

But in the end, this is a sad book with a depressing ending. Mulish insularity and small town politics win the day and the idealist, the lover of books and gentle soul, fails in her quest to educate and enlarge the world for these residents. I can't say that I love Fitzgerald's writing - I admire her skill, and find much to appreciate, but her cynicism about human nature is often off-putting for me as a reader. This one is hard to evaluate because of that balance between cleverness, bookishness, and the opposing idea that nasty people always come out on top. It felt maybe too realistic to really take to heart.