The Little Paris Bookshop

Oh my, what an incredible book.   It is a roller coaster of emotion, from smiles, giggles and laughs all the way through to crying your eyes out and feeling heartbroken.   Although i'm sure there are people who can read this book and never feel a thing, which is entirely possible if you refuse to surrender yourself to the story and characters, but then what's the point in reading a book if not to surrender to it completely?

Characters...   There isn't one awful character, everyone in this book is nice, or funny in some way, even the grumpy lock keepers and their moustachioed wives with dogs that wee on Max's hands bring a smile or giggle to you.   And that's what makes this book so hard to take in places, you can fall in love with show more the characters and feel for them so completely.   Other books have those nasty characters, the evil ones to balance the good, and that holds you in balance and never lets you fly off into the good characters so much, this book doesn't hold you back from that.

Places...   Nina is a genius when it comes to putting you into a place, a room, even a simple field.   The way she describes tastes, textures, sounds, sights, smells, makes it all feel like a dream you are in.   She never overdoes it, and always when the story needs it.

Emotions...   You feel them along with the characters as you are taken into their lives.   So many haven't loved for 21 years (or there abouts).   21 seems like the magic number in this book.   You have to go 21 years without love to be a main character in this book.   But none of it ever seems unreal, just a coincidence.   This book is about losing, about finding, about tragedy, about love, about dying, about living, its got the most wonderful high moments and most heartbreaking lows.

Story...   The best bit.   And that's the bit where i will use the last book i read to draw a few comparisons.

This was my second reading of this book, having last read it just over 2 years ago before i started writing reviews.

One thing i remember when reading it last time was that it reminded me of 'Heart of Darkness' and so the plan was to wait a couple of years and then come back to it having read 'Heart of Darkness' immediately before and then write a review of both books and see if there were any similarities.

These two books are so similar, yet so very different.   The template is definitely there, that of the river boat voyage, the bizarre encounters along the way and the deeply emotional journey of our boat captains.   We begin one sitting on the Thames in London while the other begins sitting on the Seine in Paris.   A description of companions ensues before we are taken on our voyages.   And there's where they differ.

In HoD we are on a voyage up river into the centre of the land, into the darkness and ignorance of man's soul and what he's truly capable of at his worse.   While in TLPB we are on a voyage down river to the sea, into the light and opening up of a man's soul from 21 years of darkness and ignorance, and we're shown what people are truly capable of at their best.

Whereas in HoD we have Kurtz and his fiance, in TLPB we have Luc and Manan's diary.

In HoD the final conversation with Kurtz is replaced with the final entry in Manan's diary, while Luc replaces the crazy Russian.

The bizarre encounters along the banks are quite awful episodes in HoD as they expose Marlow to ever more wrong, and dim the light ever further, while in TLPB the bizarre encounters along the banks expose Jean to ever more right, and turn on the light ever brighter.

And instead of pilgrims on the boat they are replaced with a runaway writer, a cook, and another writer who has been waiting for the love of her life to turn up; while the cannibals are replaced with 2 cats.

And no, i have no idea if Nina has even read 'Heart of Darkness', maybe she has, maybe she hasn't.   And even if she has, was that any influence on 'The Little Paris Bookshop'?   I could write and ask, but i simply love the not knowing because it really doesn't matter.   What mattered was that the first time i read TLPB i could barely remember reading HoD, it had been decades, and both were read while under the influence of alcohol, numbed, but this time i decided to read them one immediately after the other and i have been sober for 22 months.   This time i wasn't numbed by alcohol and really felt both books, i really felt that i read them both, and i really felt that they complemented each other in so many ways.

To be taken right into the depth's of Charles Marlow's darkness in HoD and be left hanging there at the end only to go immediately to the depths of Jean Perdu's darkness in Paris and be then taken back into the light was quite the literary journey, and definitely one i would very much recommend for anyone looking for a true roller-coaster experience.

But however, and whatever, you want to read, just make sure 'The Little Paris Bookshop' is on your 'To Read' pile, everyone should read this book.

I have also read 'The Little Breton Bistro' but wasn't writing reviews at that time either.   But i assure you, it's also a wonderful book.   And Nina's latest book, 'The Book of Dreams' is now out, which i'll most certainly get around to as soon as i've re-read 'The Little Breton Bistro'. show less

Every once in a while the description of a novel is perfect! "...The Little Paris Bookshop is a love letter to books, meant for anyone who believes in the power of stories to shape people's lives."

I have been a reader since I was a little child. My first memories of reading are of my Mother reading a different story to me every night from "365 Bedtime Stories" by Nan Gilbert (pseudonym). I still have this dearly loved book. My Mother and my Father were readers. Especially as an only child, books have been my constant companion. Books have taught and mentored me, inspired me, entertained me, comforted me, allowed me to travel to locations where I might never have the opportunity to visit or live in person, broadened my views and show more opinions, increased my vocabulary, and soothed my soul with a sense of peace and tranquility.

For all of those reasons, this novel enveloped me between the book covers in a wonderful story of Monsieur Perdu and his bookstore, a floating barge on the Seine or a literary apothecary. But Monsieur Perdu needs something that he has been able to offer to others but has not been able to find himself. After 20 years, he begins on an odyssey of his own to heal his heart.

Although I sometimes feel the emotions of a novel intensely, I rarely am actually brought to tears. As I finished reading the novel I realized tears had fallen down my face. There was a death in my family that occurred a long time ago and particularly as the beginning of August comes, sometimes I am taken back to the joyous memories of yesterday but sometimes I am deeply saddened for all that has been experienced without this loved one. When I was reading this novel, I felt as though Monsieur Perdu was saying things that I have felt so deeply over the years and never once voiced aloud. Sometimes there are no words for one's grief. Sometimes you read a novel and discover that there is someone that can describe what you have felt and it comforts you as nothing else could. show less

I only decided to borrow this book on a whim because of the setting suggested by the title, and I am very glad that I didn't pay for the privilege. What a load of sentimental, pretentious drivel. The best way to describe the 'plot', such as it isn't, is to imagine hundreds of those little motivational books, full of trite advice on life and love, all mashed together into one novel-length edition. 'Jean Perdu', who owns the only decent idea in the story - a floating bookshop, originally moored on the Seine, where he dispenses books tailored to meet his customers' emotional needs - is 'lost' (see what she did there) and looking for a new love, to help him get over the old one. The old one, Manon, was one of those nauseating fictional show more women who captivate men with their passion for - well - sex, basically, but who walked out of his life twenty years ago and promptly died. Jean meets up with a young author and an old friend, and they float down to the south of France, where Jean plans to lay the ghost of Manon to rest. And that's it. Even with the REALLY BIG PRINT and spaces between chapters, the whole thing still took far too long to read. If I owned a book barge, I would throw this novel overboard. show less

In a bit of a strange twist, I didn't want to like this book. Despite the critical acclaim (and the shining endorsement by Oprah, herself), my twee-meter does have a failsafe built right in, and I was half-heartedly concerned that it was going to be all fluff and little substance. Yet I persisted in purchasing it anyway and gave it my divided attention through a relatively slow start. Quickly getting used to the languid pace, I dumped my preconceived notions in the Seine and went along for the ride – and in the end, I was glad to have done it.

Nina George presents an earnest, charming peek at French existentialism through German eyes in an utterly European context. In short, to this American The Little Paris Bookshop feels like an show more anthemic meeting of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Cannery Row as witnessed by Frances Mayes – but this is simply not how most Americans live, and the voice is distinctly Continental. There are many quirks, foibles, and suspensions-of-disbelief – small things – to enjoy throughout the journey, but the big (perhaps biggest) human themes are blended together in order to create a touchingly relevant tableau of love, loss, ennui, joy, and friendship.

These things aren't for everyone, but virtually everyone will confront them during a given lifetime. Some, of course, are "luckier" than others and everyone has a different threshold of comfort with the traumas of existing. We can't escape these themes in real life, so I found the book valuable and rather surprisingly hopeful, given the many long-suffering characters within and the grief-stricken storyline that tracks right up until the last page. Yet George respectfully whispers a (very Teutonic) message on the undulating fields of lavender and battering scirocco that feature as formidable characters in their own right: being alive hurts, but every heart-flutter and paper-cut is sweet and eminently worth the cost.

This might not be what you're looking for in The Little Paris Bookshop (which I feel is a poor title for the English edition; compare to the German Das Lavendelzimmer), but it could be said that we often learn the most poignant lessons when we're faced the other way. Death is inevitable, but the memory of life is interminable. Scars and ghosts bind us to pain and hollow out our capacity to live and love. Friendship often lies in the most neglected places. And perhaps most important, at least for me: while in the very center of despair, the depth of the human heart always hopes, and in that there is great truth and great beauty. show less

This book was exactly what I needed to read when I read it. I thought it would be a cute, rather trite book from the title and description -- a fun read but not much weight. But I was totally wrong. I ended up reading it in two big chunks of time, because I needed to be able to sit down and savor the words and story, not read it in quick snatches. The author has a way of describing intense emotions and healing -- as well as the joys and power of books and reading -- in beautiful ways that just really clicked with me. I'm so surprised that there hasn't been more popularity for this book, and that so many reviewers disliked it! For me, the book was deeply affecting and expressive in so many unexpected and cathartic ways.

"Reading--an endless journey; a long, indeed never-ending journey that made one more temperate as well as more loving and kind. Max had set out on that journey. With each book he would absorb more of the world, things and people."

I almost didn't finish this book because of the attitude towards adultery. I'm glad I persevered because it is an otherwise excellent tale about the role of good literature in our lives as well as the stages of grief.

What an absolutely wonderful story! This book is one of the best I have read in a long time. The story makes you feel so deeply for the main character and the supporting characters. Your heart aches and swells for Perdu, the owner of what he calls his literary apothecary, a boat bookshop in Paris. He chooses books for his customers based on what they need in their lives. He lives in an apartment bustling with so many different personalities and yet he is alone. The story delves into why he is alone and what happens when he decides he no longer wants to be alone. I loved the relationships formed by the main character, Perdu, the young writer, Max, the lovable Italian rouge, Cuneo, and the heartbroken Catherine. The memory of love lost show more ... the chance at love found ... the desire to move on in life ... this book has it all and I found myself laughing out loud and crying at times. It was a book that took me longer than most to read because I purposely slowed down since I didn't feel ready to part with the characters. I will definitely return to this book again. It seems a balm to the soul. show less