MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - New Leaf January 2020 Discussion • The Bookshop by Penelope Fitzgerald

gmw · 01-19-2020, 07:28 PM

I think that was me, Victoria

. The evidence I place before the court is that final sentence in the book. If Florence thinks she failed because no one wanted a bookshop she did not understand what happened. They may not have wanted a bookshop enough to protest at the unfair treatment Florence received. (Would anyone really expect that from Hardborough? She had lived there eight years, she should have had some idea what to expect.) But the fact that the bookshop actually made any profit at all - for over a year - suggests they wanted one enough to use it if it was there.

The extenuating circumstance surrounding that final sentence is that it is not entirely consistent with what went before. For the rest of the book Florence shows little sentiment regarding books, except perhaps the Everyman editions, so maybe we should disregard this final moment as Florence being too upset to be coherent in her thoughts - which would be quite understandable. And since the author was quite happy to ignore reader expectation is so many other parts, perhaps she does the same with this last sentence.

I quite agree that Fitzgerald leaves much of the book unresolved, but that last sentence bothers me.

01-19-2020, 07:28 PM	#56
gmw cacoethes scribendi Posts: 5,809 Karma: 137770742 Join Date: Nov 2010 Location: Australia Device: Kobo Aura One & H2Ov2, Sony PRS-650	I think that was me, Victoria . The evidence I place before the court is that final sentence in the book. If Florence thinks she failed because no one wanted a bookshop she did not understand what happened. They may not have wanted a bookshop enough to protest at the unfair treatment Florence received. (Would anyone really expect that from Hardborough? She had lived there eight years, she should have had some idea what to expect.) But the fact that the bookshop actually made any profit at all - for over a year - suggests they wanted one enough to use it if it was there. The extenuating circumstance surrounding that final sentence is that it is not entirely consistent with what went before. For the rest of the book Florence shows little sentiment regarding books, except perhaps the Everyman editions, so maybe we should disregard this final moment as Florence being too upset to be coherent in her thoughts - which would be quite understandable. And since the author was quite happy to ignore reader expectation is so many other parts, perhaps she does the same with this last sentence. I quite agree that Fitzgerald leaves much of the book unresolved, but that last sentence bothers me.