Nothing fancy, no literary
masterpiece, but just a feel-good read: that is Deborah Meyler’s The Bookstore in a nutshell. There's nothing I love more than going into a
good old-fashioned bookstore (which are few and far between nowadays), and Meyler
seems to share my grumbling about e-readers through her characters' words. Turning the pages and feeling the actual book
are things you just can't do with an electronic device.
Esme Garland is an English
woman living in New York City on a Columbia University art history
scholarship. She is quickly swept up by
Mitchell, a wealthy man swimming in confidence, and soon finds herself pregnant
with his child. Her "dreamboat" guy soon
wants nothing to do with either Esme or her baby, so she realizes that she's
going to need money for her new life.
She begins a job at The Owl, a bookstore she's been frequenting as a
customer. And so the novel really begins
here: with the stories of the "regulars" and Esme's fellow employees as they
become ingrained in her life.
Reading this novel
immediately made me want to go and visit some old bookstores. Going to one is like settling under a cozy throw blanket
or into a pair of well-worn slippers. And while the ending of this novel was a little too abrupt for my taste, it's a worthwhile read that lets you take comfort in, unfortunately, what seems to be a dying breed.
