The Bookshop

I found the Bookshop to be a picture of suburban busybodiness and NIMBYism. Florence is a middle aged woman determined to bring a bookshop to the small seaside town in which she lives. She stocks the books, starts a reading library, hires a young assistant and together they deal with the shop, the books, and the ghost who lives in the house. Constantly Florence is besotted by locals who think the old place could be room for something else.

Sorry for the spoiler.

Eventually, she gives up on her bookshop, and I couldn't help feeling just a bit sad about it. These people have decided together not to support this woman, but to get in her way and ruin her ambitions. What I thought would be a charming slice-of-life with cheerful protagonists was in fact the story of one woman struggling against capitalism, community and damp.

The Bookshop was well-written, swift and very readable, well drawn and even cheerful characters, but ultimately I think the melancholy of the defeat makes this hard to be fond of.