Novel Bookstore, A. by Laurence Cossé

[Frybabe]

Welcome to our July Discussion of

A Novel Bookstore by Laurence Cossé

What is a good novel? A classic, a book that was a landmark, a difficult book? We have all read books that include all the basics for a 'good' novel however, it became a novel without genius. Will ‘A Novel Bookstore’ move us toward a definition? A Utopian Paris bookstore, without the constraints of market realities and financial constraints, triggers jealousies and threats in Cossé's self-described, elegantly written novel. Ivan "Van" Georg and Francesca Aldo-Valbelli, the heroes, establish ‘The Good Novel’, a bookshop that will stock only, well written French fiction. A secret committee of eight French writers is conscripted to submit annual lists of titles that become the bookstore’s inventory. We, the readers are immediately thrust in the middle of solving secret attacks on the lives of three committee members. As the story continues, we join the friends of the ‘The Good Novel’ to also track down who is behind the attempts to de-rail the success of the bookstore that is protecting artistic excellence from being submerged by mediocrity.

Links are underlined.
Lunchtime Literary Conversations: with Laurence Cossé and author Hervé Le Tellier, moderated by Rakesh Satyal
In French, with great photos illustrating her books… Laurence Cossé dans La Grande Librairie du 12 février 2009
Quotes by Laurence Cossé

Week 1: Part 1 and Part 2 through Chapter 14 (about 102 pages)
Week 2: Part 2 from Chapter 15 to the end (about 97 pages)
Week 3: Part 3 (about 123 pages)
Week 4: Part 4 (about 86 pages)

Discussion Leaders BarbStAubrey and Marcie

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR WEEK 4 - PART 4

• We learn something about the writing process, and what constitutes a good novel, through discovering more about the committee members, especially the members who were attacked. What made an impression on you?

• What are some of the cynical aspects of the book publishing and book selling businesses that we learn about through the investigation of possible culprits? Have you experienced any negative aspects in your pursuit of books?

• What do we learn about Francesca? Is her situation, reactions and how she "took her leave" a reflection of novels you've read or heard about?

• What parallels are there in the relationships between Van and Anis and Van and Francesca?

• How do Van and Anis change after Francesca "takes her leave" and they read Francesca's notes?

• What are your thoughts as  you finish reading the book?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR WEEK 3 - PART 3

• How do the various settings – forest, hillside trail, mountain ski resort, Paris, hospitals, police station, a seventeenth-century building add mood, tone and meaning to the text?

• What recurring patterns, images/symbols, images, metaphors, similes, have you noticed and Why – What is their purpose – How do they develop or impact the characters?

• What clues made you suspect those behind the denigration of Francesco and Van

• How do the attacks on the values inherit in the book store remind you of other literary and scientific attacks

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR WEEK 2

• In this section (middle to end of Part 2) we learn something about the personal lives of Van and Francesca. What impressions are you forming of them? What does the Bookstore mean to them?

• What do you make of Anis?

• What are your impressions of the 8 members of the committee?

• What are your thoughts about the importance of literature that Francesca learned from her grandfather?
  "Literature is a source of pleasure, he said, it is one of the rare inexhaustible joys in life, but it's not only that. It must not be disassociated from reality. Everything is there. That is why I never use the word fiction. Every subtlety in life is material for a book. He insisted on the fact. Have you noticed, he'd say, that I'm talking about novels? Novels don't contain only exceptional situations, life or death choices, or major ordeals; there are also everyday difficulties, temptations, ordinary disappointments; and, in response, every human attitude, every type of behavior, from the finest to the most wretched. There are books where, as you read, you wonder: What would I have done? It's a question you have to ask yourself. Listen carefully: it is a way to learn to live. There are grown-ups who would say no, that literature is not life, that novels teach you nothing. They are wrong. Literature performs, instructs, it prepares you for life."

• Are there books that are mentioned in this section that you are thinking about reading?

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS FOR WEEK 1

• Who is telling the story?
• How many stories within stories have you noticed?  What books have you read that use a narrative embedded in the story, often told by a character in the story? This is sometimes called a Metadiegetic Narrative (a back story).

• On page 23 Marcellin heard Paul deliriously mutter “Mina green and pink.” When he spoke of it to Madame Huon, she assumed Paul “was referring to one of his visitors and the color of her eye shadow or her lingerie.” What was Paul referencing, and why is it important?

• Several of the names that are sprinkled in chapter 4 are names known to the French. Who among the names is a well-known skier and whose Sur name is a famous cookie even sold here in the US?
• What causes a chuckle reading the Doctor and Suzon attacking the beaufort? What is beaufort?
• What is the history of the name Montbrun?

• Suzon says Paul is a very cultured man who goes by the name Néant. In French Néant means ‘nothing - void’ which could describe what he lives on but more, how does his name link the concept of void to: ~ Charles Baudelaire ~ Alexandre Grothendieck, mathematician ~ a Cabaret  ~ Phantasmagoria

• What book have you read that was so powerful when you finished reading you realized you never read anything like it? What about the book you read was outstanding? Was it the use of language, the unforgettable characters who spoke to you in a new way, a theme that reached beyond your imagination?

• Why does Armel write checks to Maritime Rescue or Handicap International?
• Van speaks highly of Armel as a storyteller. What is the difference between a storyteller and a stylist?
• What are the various meanings for Paul’s pseudonym, Brother Brandy?
• What motivates, scares, upsets Anne-Marie?

Thanks, Barb and Marcie, and the rest who have participated.

I can't say that I am entirely happy with the ending. I would have liked to see the perpetrator(s) of the harassment punished, or at least exposed to their detriment. I knew that Van was infatuated with Anis, but I never got any feeling of great passion from him or Anis, did you? He pursued her, but the whole relationship seemed kind of flat to me. In fact, the whole book seemed kind of flat, emotionally, the whole way through. That could have been on purpose, after all, most of the story was being told after the fact, not as it was happening, by Anis who wasn't a direct party to many of the events. While the book didn't elicit many emotional highs or lows, it was most interesting and thought provoking.

[marcie]

Frybabe, now that you say that, I agree that the whole book was pretty flat emotionally. Everyone was somewhat damaged. Their love for books potentially healed or, at least, consoled them. More could have been done about the power of specific books. It's possible it was done but since I am not familiar with many of the books mentioned (many by French authors), I can't judge.

[JoanP]

I just checked to see if  Cosse has a new book in the works...
Apparently not - Novel Bookstore was the last one published in 2009.  ~


"She was first a journalist in the French newspaper Le Quotidien de Paris and then at the French public radio France Culture. Most of her novels were published by the French publishing house Gallimard. Her most famous novel to date, Le Coin du voile (1996), was translated as A Corner of the veil in American English (as well as in five other languages).

Although she published one poetic novel (Les Chambres du Sud) and one historical novel (La Femme du premier ministre), most of her latest novels evoke the contemporary French society, often in a critical or ironical manner."

[Frybabe]

I think I will see if my Library has A Corner of the Veil. It sounds interesting and I want to see if it also seems "flat".

It all reminds me of my old English Comp I teacher, who told me I wrote like a textbook. In other words, my writing also lacked emotional content. What did he expect. Most of my reading had been non-fiction or textbooks. I could tell a good story, but it was flat. He wasn't, apparently, well liked with the department chair because he was more interested in just getting students to not be afraid to write and to put some emotion and descriptive their writing than he was getting the spelling right or the correct punctuation. That, I think, came from his interest in theatrics. I appreciated it, but then I didn't need a lot of help with punctuation or spelling or sentence structure.

[Frybabe]

My library doesn't have "Corner" but they did have Joanna Trollope's, The Choir, so I ordered that. They also have Justen Evans', The White Devil, but both copies are out on loan. No hurry.

[marcie]

Frybabe, thanks for nudging me. I've put in a request for A Corner of the Veil at my library. The summary says "The discovery by a French priest that God exists throws the world in turmoil. If everyone starts believing and behaving well, what need for priests and policemen? Church and State unite to hush up the discovery so as to keep their jobs." It sounds like it could be fun.