Confessions of a Curious Bookseller (Kindle Edition)
by Elizabeth Green (Goodreads Author)
Interesting book about a bookstore owner who is fizzling into a downward spiral. It took me a while to get used to the format, no dialogue between people. Only, as many have said, emails, blogs and the journal of the main character. I soon realized that the distanced communication of emails between her and her employees, her friends and enemies and her family spoke to her discomfort in relationships with people. Her hatred of her father and jealousy of her sister was her juvenile and lopsided reality of an unhappy young person living in the body of a 50 something woman who might never realize her dreams as she blamed everyone but herself for her failures.
Her head lived in another reality, where she corresponded as a wealthy lady of leisure, even while she was trying to survive on meager earnings in her dusty and moldy bookstore, in a building that was falling apart around her.
Fawn was not a nice person, though she thought she was. Hints are given along the way, especially in her journal, for her distorted view of the world and people around her. only toward the end, after what should have been a personal tragedy , did she begin to see her childhood and her family in a different light.
Of course she was an unreliable narrator, but that is soon made clear by her ranting and lies. I admit it was not hilarious but certainly amusing.
Something I do appreciate about any book is if it continues to evolve after I have completed it. This one did. Did anyone else wonder about her poor old tenant? Did she really exist? Was she actually alive (creepy thought of Psycho in my head)? Notice that she never opened that box of old Valentine candy. Was George really traveling with her? No one saw him but Fawn.
The curious book store and cat lady certainly still had bats in her belfry, but living in her world for a while became increasingly interesting. What, pray tell, would she do next? Give the book a try.
Brenda Drexler
Also posted on Goodreads
