Book No. 32 of 2020
For the second time this year, @cozyreadingclub and I checked out the same book simultaneously without consulting each other, which definitely enhanced the reading experience. 😂
The Stationery Shop is a bittersweet love story littered with amazing descriptions of Persian food. I found my mouth watering at Kamali’s passages about saffron rice and khouresh and felt so robbed that I couldn’t have these things.
I have to say I didn’t love the pacing of the book and felt like the writing was somewhat uneven—the first couple sections feel very surface-level compared to the more emotionally resonant final chapters. The best passages, imho, which cover everything from the discontent of social media “friendships” to the poignant pangs of parenthood, are all loaded in the last third of the book. The plot twists were somewhat cliche for my taste, and I do wish the antagonists were given a little more room for exploration; as it is, they were a little one-dimensional even as the author touched on some valuable themes in writing about their motivations.
Similar Reads
The story arc (a disrupted romance in the middle of political upheaval, a quiet supportive husband, the American immigrant narrative, the epilogue) is very reminiscent of Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Lowland.
Both Walter and Bahman reminded me of different qualities in Jimmy Young from Amy Tan’s The Kitchen God’s Wife.