1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars
The beauty of economy, July 25 2000
This review is from: Three Novels: The Blue Flower; The Bookshop; Offshore (Paperback)
The world has lost a treasure in Penelope Fitzgerald, who died earlier this year at the age of 83. She had lived for so many years by the time she began writing (her first novel was published when she was 60) that she could see what was important and what wasn't, and she learned never to waste a word. So we have novels like The Bookshop, a powerful but pinched novel that stemmed a lot of its own force, and Offshore, an absolutely perfect work that said a lifetime's worth in only 140 pages.
The Bookshop, Fitzgerald's second novel, concerns Florence Green's struggle to open a bookshop in her small town, and the gentle opposition against the idea by the townspeople. There are great moments of truth and beauty, but often the Fitzgerald limits her own explorations, as if she put on blinders while writing. I love her economic style, how she says so much with so little, but in this case, she merely says "enough" with so little.
With Offshore, written the year after The Bookshop, Penelope Fitzgerald has truly opened up, creating a whole tucked-away world---the houseboats of the Thames River---we feel we've visited our entire lives. It's full of moments of little truths: the cab driver who kindly takes Nenna home, the children selling antique tiles to a curmudgeonly storekeeper, the thing that drives Richard's wife away---and what brings her back. I haven't had the pleasure of reading The Blue Flower, but I promise myself that it's next on my list.
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