Review 294: The Paris Bookseller

The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An historical novel of the founder of Shakespeare & Company, an English bookstore in Paris France. Sylvia Beach is an American living between the wars in Paris and she went after what she desired: running a bookshop, having a relationship with a woman, and having writers as friends. A Lost Generation of American writers in Paris, though seems like a golden era now, circled around this bookstore, with it’s lending library a big part of the bookstore besides selling books.

The bulk of this novel centers on publishing Ulysses the novel by James Joyce, banned in America before it was even finished. Despite the massive difficulties in publishing the book, Sylvia felt it was an important piece of literature that must be published. Later the novel became a way to support the bookshop, and it did give it fame. Sylvia’s friendship with Joyce is also a main aspect of the book, along with her relationship with fellow bookstore owner Adrienne Monnier.

The one thing that somewhat irked me was Sylvia’s smoking. It did harm her health to some degree, but the frequency it was mentioned in the book seemed to signal graver health concerns due to the smoking. It’s not, but it makes me wonder why such significance of smoking was put into the book.

The extensive author’s note at the end helps to identify all that was fictional, with the attempt at more fact than fiction. Of course specific conversations are fiction, and there are other bits, but the main gist of the story are true events.

Thanks to Berkley Publishing and NetGalley for an uncorrected electronic advance review copy of this book.

Listened to the audiobook and found the narration done well, to my ears, with the French and Irish accents.