Categories: uncategorized
Date: 29 March 2008 16:42:35
I have just finished reading 84 Charing Cross Road by Helene Hanff. This is part of the Ship of Fools book group for April so I thought I would get a head start on it. It only took me just over an hour or so to read so a head start was hardly required!!
In all honesty there isn't really a story here but rather a reflection on developing relationships and friendships through letters. (Similar to what we do online these days?) The book is a series of letters between the American Helene Hanff and the staff at 84 Charing Cross Road, London, a bookshop selling rare and second hand books. I think the best way to describe this book is to say that it is 'charming'. The letters between the different individuals cover a 20 year period from 1949 - 1969.The post-war era shows Miss Hannf sending gifts of food and stockings to the staff of the bookshop, and her quest for a variety of hard-to-find books which nearly always are tracked down by the bookshop staff, in particular Mr. Frank Doel.
I didn't know what to expect from this book, and I would have been unlikely to read it had it not been on the book group list, but I loved it and it will go back on my bookshelf to be re-read again in the future.