It starts with a table and a door that leads to a room that has been closed for 21 years. Monsieur Perdu has barred the door with a bookcase, like a lid on a pot simmering with tempestuous emotions. But now, he has to get inside the room so he can take out the table that he intends to give to the sobbing woman behind the green door across the hall from his apartment. He takes down the wall of words one by one, book by book, until the door finally appears.
This book was a random pick at Fully Booked sometime November last year. I wasn’t familiar with Nina George, the author, but the review from Oprah.com on the upper part of the cover drew me in: “If you’re looking to be charmed right out of your own life for a few hours, sit down with this wise and winsome novel.” I was going through a rough and mopey phase that time, and I needed a book that will distract me from my overall glumness. So I bought it. But it wasn’t until the last few days of December 2017 that I finally got to read this (I was really bad with my reading goals in 2017.)
This book is more than just wise and winsome; it spoke to me. It made me cry (the last time I’ve cried this often over a book was Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close) and it made me laugh. The characters were so alive and extremely relatable. The plot is simply enchanting – it revolves around Monsieur J Perdu, a literary apothecary who owns a floating barge-turned-bookstore along the Seine. He sells books like medicines. He prescribes books as if they are medicines for the soul, believing that there is a perfect book for whatever you’re going through right now. When he discovers an unopened letter from a love he lost years ago, the literary physician himself goes on a journey on his floating barge to seek his own healing, and takes the readers on a ride across South of France.
This book is a love letter to books, an ode to the love of stories. There is warmth, there is whimsy, there is heartache, there is laughter. I am taking to heart Monsieur Perdu’s advise, taking note of the books he’s prescribed for certain “ailments”. At the end of the book, there is a Recipe section featuring the cuisine of Provence, and of course, “Monsieur Perdu’s Emergency Literary Pharmacy” listing the books that are “fast-acting medicines for minds and hearts affected by minor or moderate emotional turmoil.”
This is the first book I’ve finished for 2018, but this won’t be the last time I’ll read this. This definitely will be read again sometime soon, preferably accompanied by Lavender Ice Cream (a recipe featured in the book) and maybe, when I’m in the middle of falling in love.
I’ll also be catching up on Nina George’s other books to add to my TBR list for this year. I already checked out her website and found a link to Book Apothecary (a virtual version of Monsieur Perdu’s floating literary clinic) within the Read it Forward website. I have a feeling I’ll be spending a lot of time on that website next week.
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