by Nina George
We all want to read Perdu’s
work, Great Encyclopedia of Small
Emotions: A Guide for Booksellers, Lovers, and Other Literary Pharmacists.
We all left our discussion thinking about what emotions to add. Visiting the Literary Apothecary sounds like fun and
we love the idea of the perfect book for curing ails. We love that Jean Perdu sells
book in his own way. Perdu can prescribe what a reader needs and will only let
them have that book, not the one they want to buy.
Perdu is an interesting
character because he denies himself so many things in life. The name Jean Perdu
is accurate because “perdu” means lost in French. No one can imagine sealing
off their life for 21 years because of a lost love. Also, we would all read the
letter immediately after receiving it. None of us could seal it away in a
drawer and never open it. Even if it said the usual courtesies of a breakup,
we’d still want to know the details.
All of our characters are
adrift both physically on the book barge and emotionally in their relationships
to others. Max Jordan the famous author of Night
is everyone’s favorite character. We love his personality and his friendship
with Perdu. His children’s book ideas sound fascinating and we all want to read
them. Cuneo is a great character who fits right in on the barge with Perdu and
Max. We enjoy his love for life and his cooking skills. Our group wants to know
more and have additional backstory on Catherine. She plays such a large role in
Jean’s life and seems more interesting than Manon.
Some of the members feel this
book was a nice read but found flaws with the writing, different scenes, and
some details were overlooked by George. A one member point out Nina George
wrote 29 novels and teaches writing but this novel’s writing style is nothing
special and it did not connect with her the way it should have. However, she
notes the novel is translated from German so perhaps the fault lies with the
translator’s and not George.
A number of members felt Samy
was too weird and they were ambivalent about her as a character. Although she
plays such a large and important role in Jean’s life as the author of Sothern Lights, a book that found him at
his worst and helped him for 20 years. Samy also becomes a dear friend who
helps guide Jean through his grief during the “hurting time.” Samy and Cuneo’s
relationship is well-liked and we are all glad Jean brings the two together.
There were too many little
things the group could not overlook in their reading which made the book less
enjoyable for them. We have a number of questions:
- How did Jean fall
in love with Catherine so quickly?
- How did Catherine
feel about Jean disappearing for months?
- Why didn’t Jean
prepare for the trip and at least bring some food?
- How did Jean not
know Manon was dead sooner? Why didn’t he try and contact her or track her
down?
- Sealing off his
life like he did his kitchen seems extreme. Why didn’t he just give up his
whole apartment and live on the barge?
The deer drowning in the
canal is too odd for most of us. We know it is supposed to illuminate the loss
and death of their past lives, however it did not move us the way it should
have. The poor deer screaming in the canal lacks something that we cannot
identify. Perhaps it is something lost in translation. We know all of our
characters come away from this scene with a deeper sense of life and death but
the impact on the reader is minimal.
Manon is an unsympathetic
character and her diary entries do no help her. Manon did not create an
emotional bond with us. We did not see why Jean’s attraction to her never
wavers after 20 years. He stops his life because she left him. Manon seems to
love Jean but she does not give up her life with Luc for him. If Manon told
Jean in person she was sick and explains she is pregnant and cannot receive
treatment she may have redeemed herself, but then we wouldn’t have an
adventure, so maybe she needed to be selfish.
The voice is very French, it
is suave, seductive, and gives the reader a deeper understanding of life and
love. Some of the ideas and characters of this book we attribute to “being
French” so they get a pass. Luc’s character is so forgiving, open, and
accepting of Manon’s lover that we all said, “he’s French so he understands.”
The Little Paris Bookshop transports you to a faraway place. While reading this
book it was fun to Google image search all the locations to see the beautiful
scenery are characters are exploring. We love traveling the canals through
France. We learn a lot about the lock system and the different areas from the
gardens to the hot, mountainous, lavender fields of the South of France. We are
all glad we read this book.
