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will love Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. This book is worth the hour it takes to read it, but I was surprised after all of the glowing reviews to find myself somewhat disappointed with it. The entire time I was reading it I kept expecting it to become the charming, sweet, interesting story that I had read so much about. I enjoyed slipping into that time period for an hour, but the story was too dull for my liking. ( )Take an hour out of your day and read this book. It is one of the touching works of a by gone era. In a time before Facebook, Myspace and even email you can enter the world of Helene Hanff and Frank Doel. She is a struggling New York writer and he is a London Bookseller. The long distance correspondence between these two is timeless. It is a true friendship that began with a book. The letters and love bring you back to Britain and Broadway of the late 1940s to the end of the 1960s. I highly reccommend this time capsule of a book. I really don't understand the popularity of this little book. Here is the totally uninteresting correspondance between an American B-film script writer, who has nothing to say and proves herself to be a rude philistine, and the dry business correspondance of a clerk in a London book shop. There's a lot of names dropping, and plenty of drivel over post-war time charity. What horror to know there is a sequel (one could expect as much from a script writer). This small collection of correspondence between Ms. Hanff and a British bookseller has been recommended by so many on LT that I'll simply say that I found it wonderful and was sorry when it ended. It became an instant favorite. Absolutely love this book! As a booklover you recognize similarly inflicted people, and you want to know more of the books they want and love. As a bonus, you see how the relationship between Helene and Frank develops, from strictly business to real friendship. The time is for me an extra bonus, to hear about life in postwar England, I learned things I had no clue about. I cannot go to London without reading this book, and every time I read it, I get so caught up in it I cannot put it down. no reviews | add a review
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| Book description |
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Two years later, Hanff is outraged that Marks & Co. has dared to send an abridged Pepys diary. "i enclose two limp singles, i will make do with this thing till you find me a real Pepys. THEN i will rip up this ersatz book, page by page, AND WRAP THINGS IN IT." Nonetheless, her postscript asks whether they want fresh or powdered eggs for Christmas. Soon they're sharing news of Frank's family and Hanff's career. No doubt their letters would have continued, but in 1969, the firm's secretary informed her that Frank Doel had died. In the collection's penultimate entry, Helene Hanff urges a tourist friend, "If you happen to pass by 84, Charing Cross Road, kiss it for me. I owe it so much."
(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:18 -0400)
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