Book No. 78 of 2020
A very charming story, and a shameless love letter to books and reading and people who love books. I felt so warm and fuzzy basking in the author’s and characters’ love for the literary world, and mentions of other books and authors were like greetings from old friends.
I thought the strength of this book was in its impressions of food and sense of place, and in the way it delves into the heady, painful, and beautiful feelings of love and grief. I teared up at moments; while the characters themselves, to me, seemed delightful but not fully formed, their attachments, pain, and love felt very real. It was also a joy and a balm to escape to the French countryside and seaside, which George depicts with such sensory vividness that it both soothed and ached to read. Ngl I was ambivalent about the first quarter or so of the story (wasn’t sold on the slow reveal of the characters’ inner demons) but once a particularly Up moment happens, it gets going.
I was very, very taken by the fact that George includes two sections at the end of her book: one featuring recipes for some of the lovingly described meals in the story, and one with a reading list (complete with what “ailment” each book fixes, along with its side effects) of stories mentioned in the book. More books should do this imho!
Similar Reads
Similar themes and vibes as Muriel Barbery’s The Elegance of the Hedgehog and Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie Barrows’ The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society.
I was also reminded of Genki Kawamura’s If Cats Disappeared From the World, for its exploration of mortality and what really matters in life.