It's not often that I like a book but think the author is a bit of a jerk. But that is the case here. What Mercer seems to chalk up to some mistakes of youth, I see as a young adult with poor values. Nevertheless he did achieve something fine here. This is a very interesting portrait of the place Shakespeare & Co, the English-language bookshop in Paris, and it's owner of the last 50 or so years, George Whitman. Mercer seems to still be infected with at least one questionable value from his youth. During the whole narrative of the book, he only once mentions a woman without saying that she is beautiful. I don't know if that means that he finds all women beautiful, that only beautiful women visit (or are allowed into) Shakespeare & Co, or that he doesn't bother to even think about those who are not beautiful. ( )

Subtitle: A Paris Sojourn at Shakespeare & Co
Also published as: Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs: the Left Bank World of Shakespeare and Co.

Several bad decision derailed Mercer’s journalism career in Canada, so he ran to Paris to take a final French course and finish his degree requirements. On a rainy afternoon he took refuge in a shop near Notre Dame and discovered Shakespeare & Co. A casual invitation from a lovely young woman to join the others for “tea upstairs” eventually led to his being offered a bed in the place, something the owner, George Whitman, did for writers and other artists down on their luck. The result is this memoir of the time he spent there.

I found this very entertaining. I loved reading about his adventures scrounging for the cheapest food, picnics with friends along the Seine, the joys of free museums, and the eccentric residents of the shop, not least of which was the owner. It’s a very atmospheric read – you can smell the dusty books, hear the soft buzz of conversation, relish in the aroma of fresh baked croissants.

But, I was less enamored of the casual lawlessness, from drug use to petty theft; I just don’t find that kind of behavior “romantic.” Still, I think it’s an honest, and well-written, depiction of his time there. And I enjoyed vicariously living in Paris for those few days I was reading this. (Mercer still lives in France.) ( )

An account of the authors flight from Canada to Paris where he found and stayed at Shakespeare and Company for some months as well as stories from the earlier decades of the bookstore. It provides an easy to digest interesting look at a group of young people who haven't yet found where or if they want to build their lives presided over by an octogenarian who has built his life right there but still somehow feels he should be roaming. ( )

I read this book during my summer vacation from seminary. It resonated deeply with me. I hitchhiked around the U.S. and Europe in my youth. I've always aspired to be a writer. I've made bad choices and good choices. Most of all, I didn't quite fit in at a lot of places. Mercer describes all of this masterfully.

Yet as I was reading this, I kept thinking about how it related to my seminary education. Finally, I got to this:

“You know, that’s what I’ve always wanted this place to be,” he said. “I look across at Notre Dame and I sometimes think the bookstore is an annex of the church. A place for the people who don’t quite fit in over there.”

I think those of us seeking to serve in the church need to think about how we serve those who don't quite fit into the typical established church Sunday morning service. ( )

As every book lover knows, there is something special about a bookshop, but the famous, Shakespeare and Company, in Paris is another level again. Originally founded in 1919 by Sylvia Beach, she was the first to distribute Ulysses by joyce, and counted among her friends Scott Fitzgerald and Hemingway. After her death, George Whitman bought the stock and re-founded his own shop in homage to hers. Originally called Le Mistral, he renamed it Shakespeare and Company on the 400th anniversary of the bard’s birthday. Whitman had always been a wanderer, walking all over the States, Mexico and Central America. The charity and kindness that people showed him on his travels, inspired his philosophy “Be not inhospitable to strangers lest they be angels in disguise.” The bookshop was to become a haunt and dwelling for aspiring poets and writers, and a number of the staff lived in the shop too. He called them Tumbleweeds; they had few responsibilities, but they included, producing a short autobiography, helping out in the bookshop for a few hours a day and reading a book a day.

Mercer started out as a journalist, reporting court cases and other news items for a local paper. After a run in with a criminal contact he decided that he need to leave Canada for his own safety. Arriving in Paris he turns up at the bookshop as he has heard that it can be a refuge. Whitman says he can stay for a while, and says he can stay in the Antiquarian room, but he must say to the current resident, a poet called Simon, that after five years it is time for him to move on. Simon proves elusive, and when he does catch up with him to pass on the news he seems distraught. They agree on a time period for him to go, but when Mercer says that Simon wasn’t going to leave, he expects a scene, but Whitman shrugs it off.

As he settles into Paris life and the bookshop, he starts to befriend the other people that are living there. Whitman is a man who collects favourites, Mercer becomes one at one point, before the latest new member overtakes him. It is a bit chaotic, he is forever leaving money in books, there are a number of thefts from unguarded tills, and there are always new people and others moving on. They have to find places to shower and bathe and having very little money himself, he is taught by Kurt the cheapest and best places to eat from. For a time they are fed by a staff member of the New Zealand Embassy, and have to sneak in and stay quiet so they don’t get caught. And in this place of misfits, great things have emerged. It is thought that at least seven books have been written there, and many times that have been started or conceived.

It was a really lovely book to read. Mercer has brought the bookshop and its many characters to life and gives us a flavour of Parisian life at the time. There are some funny parts too as they sail a little too close to the law. Whitman is quite a man too, flawed but generous, this bookshop that he has given to the world is now in safe hands as his daughter is now running it.

Must pay it a visit one day.
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