Bookstore

Author: (English) Penelope Fitzgerald Yin Xiaodong
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2006-01-01
Features: This is a nearly tragic novel about a "bookstore" (or perhaps more accurately, about "books"). The protagonist, Florence, seems to have decided to open a bookstore in a small town called Hamburg in search of something called "meaning." However, just as the unseen yet omnipresent "knocking ghost" in "The Old House," the powers representing all strata of the town, embodied by Mrs. Gamart, deliberately or unintentionally fill the bookstore with rejection and hostility. Even the little girl who does an excellent job of book shelving—Kristin—harbors resentment toward everything related to books. With the passing of the only gentleman who supported Florence and her bookstore, Mr. Brandonish, the bookstore also sadly closes. The author's writing is gentle and concise, enduringly profound, and the novel is permeated with a tragic atmosphere.
Florence is the protagonist of this book. Eight years after her husband's death, she suddenly decides to open a bookstore—stories always begin this way. A sudden idea interrupts your quiet life, as if seeking something called "meaning." She doesn't actually understand books. One day, when I translated that passage, she was putting new books on the shelves, thinking about a sentence on the title page—"A good book is the condensed soul of a master, a precious blood, preserved forever for life beyond life." Seeing words like "blood" and "soul," she placed the book between the sections of religious and family medicine literature. At that moment, I was deeply moved—precisely because she didn't understand books, her love for them became even more precious. It is because of this love that the faint sorrow of her life's struggles shines with a heartwarming light.
This is a nearly tragic novel about a "bookstore" (or perhaps more accurately, about "books"). The protagonist, Florence, seems to have decided to open a bookstore in a small town called Hamburg in search of something called "meaning." However, just as the unseen yet omnipresent "knocking ghost" in "The Old House," the powers representing all strata of the town, embodied by Mrs. Gamart, deliberately or unintentionally fill the bookstore with rejection and hostility. Even the little girl who does an excellent job of book shelving—Kristin—harbors resentment toward everything related to books. With the passing of the only gentleman who supported Florence and her bookstore, Mr. Brandonish, the bookstore also sadly closes. The author's writing is gentle and concise, enduringly profound, and the novel is permeated with a tragic atmosphere.