Saturday, October 09, 2004
JUST FINISHED: Parnassus on Wheels by Christopher Morley. My attack on Ulysses seems to have stalled for the time being; I haven't touched the book for nearly two weeks. I'm so ashamed, but I have every intention on picking up where I left off before the weekend's out. In the meantime, I settled on a shorter work to cleanse the palate.
Parnassus on Wheels, originally published in 1917, is a cheerful enough book, concerning Andrew and Helen McGill, a brother and sister who ditch the city and take up the farming life. Everything's copacetic until the day they inherit a relative's library, which promptly sends everything to Hell. Pretty soon Andrew is not only reading as he plows the fields, but starts writing books, eventually neglecting his "practical" work to crank out bestselling homespun homilies. Sort of Green Acres in reverse.
Into this ventures Roger Mifflin, a balding red-haired man who shows up one day intending to sell his horse-drawn mobile bookshop, the Travelling Parnassus, to Andrew. Helen, hellbent on snatching a temptation to desert the farm (again) out from under her brother's nose and having her own open-road adventure in the bargain, buys the Parnassus from Mifflin, who tags along to help Helen learn her new vocation.
Actually, it's more of a spiritual calling than a job, since Mifflin's attitude towards bookselling is a bit different than what we've become used to in the mallrat chain bookstores. He drives his rolling store around the countryside, selling his wares with the verve of a medicine show hawker, his goal to marry people to the book that suits them best. He sells books for what he feels they're worth, rather than cover price, and won't give a person a book if he doesn't feel they're "ready". The main goal is to instill a love of reading, and in that respect, business is booming.
Parnassus was a very brisk read (I managed to reach the end in just a few hours); there's adventure, a bit of romance, and even some stuff about books. Mifflin is a fascinating character, and my understanding is that The Haunted Bookshop, a sequel which allows him even more of a chance to hold forth on literature, is even better.
Parnassus on Wheels, originally published in 1917, is a cheerful enough book, concerning Andrew and Helen McGill, a brother and sister who ditch the city and take up the farming life. Everything's copacetic until the day they inherit a relative's library, which promptly sends everything to Hell. Pretty soon Andrew is not only reading as he plows the fields, but starts writing books, eventually neglecting his "practical" work to crank out bestselling homespun homilies. Sort of Green Acres in reverse.
Into this ventures Roger Mifflin, a balding red-haired man who shows up one day intending to sell his horse-drawn mobile bookshop, the Travelling Parnassus, to Andrew. Helen, hellbent on snatching a temptation to desert the farm (again) out from under her brother's nose and having her own open-road adventure in the bargain, buys the Parnassus from Mifflin, who tags along to help Helen learn her new vocation.
Actually, it's more of a spiritual calling than a job, since Mifflin's attitude towards bookselling is a bit different than what we've become used to in the mallrat chain bookstores. He drives his rolling store around the countryside, selling his wares with the verve of a medicine show hawker, his goal to marry people to the book that suits them best. He sells books for what he feels they're worth, rather than cover price, and won't give a person a book if he doesn't feel they're "ready". The main goal is to instill a love of reading, and in that respect, business is booming.
Parnassus was a very brisk read (I managed to reach the end in just a few hours); there's adventure, a bit of romance, and even some stuff about books. Mifflin is a fascinating character, and my understanding is that The Haunted Bookshop, a sequel which allows him even more of a chance to hold forth on literature, is even better.
|| Eric 11:55 PM#
