"Books are more than doctors, of course. Some novels are loving, lifelong companions; some give you a clip around the ear; others are friends who wrap you in warm towels when you've got those autumn blues. And some...well, some are pink candy floss that tingles in your brain for three seconds and leaves a blissful void. Like a short, torrid love affair."
-Jean Perdu, from the novel
The word Paris in the title drew me to this novel since my husband and I will be traveling there in October. Right in the front of the book there is a map showing Paris and some other places we'll be visiting along the Rhone River, among them Lyons and Avignon. If that wasn't enough to hook me, the title bookshop is on a barge in the Seine River. Add to all that the fact that I am a fan of bookshops and this novel became a must-read for me!
The story involves Jean Perdu, the owner of the floating book store, known as la pharmacie litteraire (literary pharmacy) because Perdu prescribes books for his customers according to their emotional needs. The reader realizes early on that Perdu is grieving a lost love---one who is not even named for several chapters---merely represented by a blank, for example "He fought off the blurry picture of himself sitting at this table, not alone but with _____." This mystery woman sent him a letter some 20 years prior after she had left him to return to her husband. He has never opened it out of fear or bitterness, I am not sure which. When he finally does open the letter, he is in for a shock and a mountain of guilt. By the time we get to the first excerpt of "Manon's Travel Diary" we learn the identity of Perdu's lost love and some of their back story.
I had trouble settling on a quote to begin my post because there were many rather poetic and/or profound expressions, especially having to do with books. I liked The Little Paris Bookshop at the beginning but later I found it a bit tedious. I neither loved nor hated it but I am rating it a 3 because I am glad I read it. Here's why: the ending held a bit of a surprise. Also the mention of the "Saint Benezet Bridge, which had been immortalized in song." I remember "Sur le Pont D'Avignon" from high school French class and we will see this bridge at Avignon in person soon. Also in one of Perdu's letters, he suggests how to organize books by genre and mentions "whodunits by Donna Leon." My Page Turners book club is reading By Its Cover by Donna Leon this very month.
The book jacket calls this a "warm and charming tale of love, loss and the power of reading." Most readers will find it so.
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