- Paperback: 272 pages
- Publisher: Phoenix; New Ed edition (3 Aug 2006)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0753820587
- ISBN-13: 978-0753820582
- Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 2.1 x 19.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 118,219 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
'Completely riveting... [a] vivid picture of modern Paris, a city of tourism and immigration with a very hard edge to it. Mercer is particularly good on his fellow lodgers above the shop... Watching them interact is like viewing a thinking person's BIG BROTHER' (OBSERVER (20/8/06) )
'An extraordinary memoir... Recommended.' (HAM & HIGH (1/9/06) )
'An extraordinary memoir... Recommended.' (HAM & HIGH (1/9/06) )
CITY LIFE
"He entertainingly tells the story of his time there and the weird and wonderful people he meets."
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is a fantastic insight into George Whitman's Shakespeare and Company bookshop in Paris. A rather unique establishment not only offering books and reading facilities but also a bed for the night, or even much longer stays, to writers without other accommodation options. Mercer's fascinating book takes out behind the scenes and is based on his own extended stay and involvement with George, the radical owner, as well as some of the other writers seeking fame and fortune or just escape from their normal lives. Mercer interweaves his own personal story leading up too his arrival in Paris. His background in journalism stands him in good stead to deal with the many challenges that the shop and George throws at him. Indeed Mercer was instrumental in assisting the aging owner to ensure the shops continuity. If you are planning to visit this `holy grail' of a bookshop this book is essential reading as it will give you an invaluable background and knowledge. And even if you are not a potential visitor you will find this book an engrossing and entertaining read. Fantastic stuff.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This picture of Torin Greenhill is taken in the famous Shakespeare & Company on the Left Bank of the Seine opposite Notre Dame in Paris and the book 'Books, Baguettes & Bedbugs' gives a brilliant flavour of this iconic store. It tells the history of George Whitman's amazing home in a bookshop for over sixty years and of the 'comings and goings' of all the budding authors who slept many a night among the books. An excellent read.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
On the run from an unfortunate mistake in his Canadian life as a crime journalist, Jeremy Mercer heads to Paris to escape for a while. Caught in a rainstorm near Notre-Dame one afternoon, he spots a welcoming light across the river and thus stumbles inadvertently on the Shakespeare and Company bookshop. Invited upstairs for tea by the beautiful woman behind the desk, wandering the labyrinth of books and beds, he soon realises that this is no ordinary bookshop and, as a poor writer, is invited to join the ranks of lost souls inhabiting the book-lined rooms.
So begins his whimsical and quintessentially bohemian stay, under the watchful eye of eccentric owner George Whitman (surely the star of the book, with his fascinating life and Communist ideals), who renamed his unique store after the original literary oasis, run by his good friend Sylvia Beach, which was forced to close down during the Second World War. Here all are welcome to browse and lose themselves in their reading; tea is offered on a Sunday; eclectic readings take place in the library; literary and political opinions are argued out - and those in need of a bed will find one amongst the books in return for a few hours helping around the shop and in the kitchen.
Mercer deliciously evokes days trawling the scattered tomes, nights spent storytelling by the Seine, tourists attracted by the store's reputation, wanderers attracted by Whitman's generosity, showering in the public washhouses, scrounging leftover food to get by: in short, a poor life, without good facilities or scope for wastage of any kind, but a happy, lively life nonetheless. The characters moving through Whitman's utopia are many and varied, yet he remains, a kind of rock in the tides of time and tourism, as the chaos of youthful dreams and books and wine whirls around him.
Of course, eventually reality bites for Mercer and it's time to move on - but his journey is magical and the lessons of the bookstore honest. Now I have Sylvia Beach's own book 'Shakespeare and Company' to read, and I recommend the documentary `Portrait of a Bookstore as an Old Man', made towards the end of Mercer's time in Paris and readily available online. Still not sure whether to read it? Try searching online for photos of the store in all its glory - if that doesn't persuade you, nothing will!
So begins his whimsical and quintessentially bohemian stay, under the watchful eye of eccentric owner George Whitman (surely the star of the book, with his fascinating life and Communist ideals), who renamed his unique store after the original literary oasis, run by his good friend Sylvia Beach, which was forced to close down during the Second World War. Here all are welcome to browse and lose themselves in their reading; tea is offered on a Sunday; eclectic readings take place in the library; literary and political opinions are argued out - and those in need of a bed will find one amongst the books in return for a few hours helping around the shop and in the kitchen.
Mercer deliciously evokes days trawling the scattered tomes, nights spent storytelling by the Seine, tourists attracted by the store's reputation, wanderers attracted by Whitman's generosity, showering in the public washhouses, scrounging leftover food to get by: in short, a poor life, without good facilities or scope for wastage of any kind, but a happy, lively life nonetheless. The characters moving through Whitman's utopia are many and varied, yet he remains, a kind of rock in the tides of time and tourism, as the chaos of youthful dreams and books and wine whirls around him.
Of course, eventually reality bites for Mercer and it's time to move on - but his journey is magical and the lessons of the bookstore honest. Now I have Sylvia Beach's own book 'Shakespeare and Company' to read, and I recommend the documentary `Portrait of a Bookstore as an Old Man', made towards the end of Mercer's time in Paris and readily available online. Still not sure whether to read it? Try searching online for photos of the store in all its glory - if that doesn't persuade you, nothing will!
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
A pleasing confection (though check for cockroaches).
The first chapter, in which the author relates how he fetched up at the celebrated Parisian bookstore, gave me the impression that this book would be painfully middle-class. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Jason Mills
Delightful
An interesting tale about the famous Parisian bookshop, though I found the huge chunks of backstory intrusive and annoying.
Published on 6 Jan 2010 by Rachel Green
Delightful
A charming book taking one back to a Paris a few decades ago. Full of the sounds ,sights and smells of Paris with all its excentricities and eccentrics.
Published on 30 Dec 2009 by S. McNeill
A really good read
This is one of those really enjoyable and rare books - travel writing which you can't put down. All the characters and settings are very well drawn and easy to engage with and the... Read more
Published on 26 Oct 2009 by AS
Flat and poorly written
I'm glad I have finished this book; it was really beginning to irritate me! I wanted to like it, I really did - Books, Paris, what's not to love? Read more
Published on 12 Sep 2009 by Boof
Self-indulgence by the Seine
On one hand, it seems unkind to knock this one-time Canadian journalist's memoir of his sojourn with the expat would-be Hemingways and tortured gap-year souls who doss down at... Read more
Published on 17 Jan 2007 by Bookstacks
you can almost smell the dusty book shelves
As someone who spends their day dreaming of being a writer and their free time trying to be one, Mercer's book opened for me a little door of heaven. Read more
Published on 2 Jan 2007 by D. Gatward
A potentially good story, badly told
This flatfooted book tells what might have been, in the right hands, a good story. Many of the anecdotes weren't worth telling. Read more
Published on 20 Jan 2006
Romance and Reality in Literary Paris
In this memoir of his stay at Shakespeare & Co., Jeremy Mercer skillfully uses his talents as an extraordinary writer-storyteller. Read more
Published on 13 Dec 2005
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