BOOK: Time Was Soft There by Jeremy Mercer

Title: Time Was Soft There
Author: Jeremy Mercer
ISBN: 0312347391
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Year: 2005
List Price: $23.95

Review: The Shakespeare & Co. bookstore in Paris has long stood as a gathering place for writers. Run by George Whitman, an old anarchist and wanderer in spirit, the store has also been a temporary home to many. George encourages young, down-on-their-luck writers to stay, but demands of them two things: First, they must help out with the store’s operations. Second, they must write.

When crime reporter Jeremy Mercer fled threats on his life in Canada and ended up on the doorstep of this quixotic little bookshop, his life took an unpredictable turn. Living in the bookstore on the charity of others and the survival skills he learned along the way proved to be an adventure far more thrilling than reporting crime.

This is a book about a unique bookstore with a fascinating history, a snapshot of Parisian life as seen by an outsider and a debaucherous look at the lives of writers. That, however, is not all. Harlan Ellison paraphrased William Faulkner once and said that no one will ever write a great tome about the silkworm because the only thing worth writing about is the human heart in conflict with itself. And that is the heart of this book.

Jeremy Mercer captures the personalities and conflicts of the other writers living in the bookstore as well as the customers, homeless characters and passers-by who make the English language Paris bookstore the marvel it is.

Most loving is the author’s descriptions of George, the young-at-heart owner who teaches Mercer the importance of literature, passion and a good Chinese beer.

There may never be a great tome written about a bookstore, but by focusing on the people inside and their conflicts, Jeremy Mercer has written a great book about writers and others who live the romantic allure of literature.

Rating: 4.5 / 5

Buy A Copy of Time Was Soft There at Amazon.com: Consume

Buy Jeremy Mercer's Other Books

-Money For Nothing: The Ten Best Ways To Make Money Illegally In North America (1999)
- The Champagne Gang: High Times And Sweet Crimes (1998)

Picture provided by a link to Amazon.com