I am a sucker for books and Paris, and books about Paris, so I had high expectations for this book. Jean Perdu is the lovelorn owner/operator of the Literary Apothecary, a floating book barge on the Seine from which he prescribes books to heal his customers. Perdu has been avoiding reading the ‘Dear John/Jean’ letter that his last lover, Manon, sent him when she left 20 years ago. When he does finally open Manon’s letter, he discovers that she had been trying to say a different sort of goodbye- she was dying and wanted him to visit her one last time in her Provencal hometown. Reading Manon’s letter sets off a journey- Jean casts the book barge off its moorings and sets sail down the canals for Provence. Jean’s journey is both physical, north to south, and metaphorical, as he grieves the past.
This was a popular bestseller in France, and now that it has been translated widely it has reached the ranks of polarizing Good Reads novels. Some readers felt mislead- they expected a book about a man prescribing books from his book barge, and despite being the premise that is not the focus of George’s book. Other readers have complained about this being overly schmaltzy- they are also not wrong but honestly it’s a book about Paris, books and love- I expected some schmaltz. My biggest criticism, echoed by other readers, was that the love affair that Jean is grieving doesn’t give us much of the woman he was in love with- it makes it harder to emphasize with his grief.
In the end things wrap up rather neatly but that didn’t entirely bother me- the novel was about Jean grieving, so him getting to the stage where he could experience a new love affair seems like a reasonable conclusion. Quite aside from the plot, this was a nice book to read for the vicarious travel in a time when real travel is impossible. I have been googling photos of Paris, French canals and the Luberon, and it almost feels like I could be there…
