Comments from the De Soto Book Discussion Group regarding our May 2017 selection:

The Little Paris Bookshop 
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.