“Do you have Jane Eyre?” she asked, and I was about to answer when she finished her question. “In an older copy? Hardback?”
I was still sizing that up when she concluded: “In French?”
Getting past the surprise, I was flattered that she expected it possible to find a copy of that English literature title in French (or a French literature title in English). It’s a sure indication that our Broken Arrow, Oklahoma clientele is a discerning sort.
Regrettably, I let her down.
Had she been a little less specific, I could have offered Lettres et Poésies d’amour de Charlotte Brontë, a 1953 collection of Ms. Brontë’s love letters published in Belgium. There’s a copy of Moulin Rouge on the shelf as well (Paris, 1953). Wouldn’t do though.
C’est la façon dont le ballon rebondit. (That’s the way the ball bounces.)
Of course, the discriminating nature of this morning’s question is offset by the one posed by a gentleman the other day. He opened the door, stepped inside, put his hands on his hips, and gazed around from floor to ceiling.
“What is it you do in here, exactly?” he asked.
I was stumped by that one, I’ll admit. Had the answer until he tacked on the “exactly,” which had me mentally fishing for some concise description of what goes on – exactly – in a bookstore with bistro tables, where the proprietor rebinds books, edits manuscripts, and pursues research projects in between the cooking and the cleaning.
Should have just handed him a copy of Gabrielle Zevin’s homage to the independent bookstore, “The Storied Life of A. J. Fikry,” currently entrenched on the New York Times bestsellers list. Ms. Zevin obviously has a place in her heart for off-beat shops and a story that will appeal to readers – whether they own a bookstore or not.
In truth, I’m a little reluctant to recommend it. Could be I liked it because a lot of what happens at A. J. Fikry’s Island Bookstore is curiously familiar. Maybe not in exact events, but in the sorts of things that happen in the book shop. Then, there are the book-reader inside jokes and behind-the-counter details that are indigenous to the endangered species – bookseller.
Mr. Fikry is a curmudgeonly proprietor (and you may keep your comparisons to yourself), who finds life-redemption in the form of an abandoned child left in his book store. Although none of the reviews I encountered mentioned it, I can’t be the only one who was reminded of George Eliot’s “Silas Marner.” Granted, Silas is the weaver of Raveloe instead of the village bookseller, but his stolen hoard of money is eventually forgotten when a child is left at his doorstep. Mr. Fikry finds public acceptance through the advice and counsel of the many neighbors who share their childrearing experiences, just as did Silas Marner. Despite the similarities, Ms. Zevin massages the plot into an original story that will endear itself to most readers.
You’ll find a first edition copy (with a custom plastic dustjacket protector) at below-publisher price, but it occurred to me as I set it out that A. J. Fikry encountered trouble in his offering of bestsellers in Ms. Zevin’s story.
“Seems like a lot,” says his customer, looking over the latest Alex Cross hardback. “You know I can get it cheaper online, right?” Mr. Fikry answers in a manner that you won’t hear in this shop.
I may be curmudgeonly, but politeness drills are staged each morning – part of what we do in here, Exactly.
Come visit!
McHuston
Booksellers & Irish Bistro
Rose District
122 South Main St. Broken Arrow OK!