Book Review

The Little Paris Bookshop

Rating:

I listened to The Little Paris Bookshop on CD. I say this right off, because the audio reader was so wonderful that he may have biased me. I loved listening to this story — loved the French accent, the French setting, the humor. I loved the love story — yup, gotta say that, too. Toward the last of the CD, I was driving around town just to hear a little more. I was so sorry when it ended that I couldn’t believe some of the reader reviews were so negative.

I loved The Little Paris Bookshop. But did I love it because of the talent of the reader? There were actually three readers, two women and a man, though the man did the bulk of the work. Would I have grown bored with some of the plot twists, without the lure of that fabulous, accented voice? Would I have felt the ending was too pat or too syrupy sweet, if the process of listening hadn’t been so enjoyable?

This raises the question, of course, of whether a skillful actor can add a whole new element to a book, above and beyond what the author delivers with her words. I may have hated this book had I read it in print. Or loved it. I’m so glad I listened instead. It brought me many pleasurable hours.

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