The Story of Life in a Very Different Bookshop
by Down and out in Paris? Head to Shakespeare and Company. That’s what Jeremy Mercer did and in his book, reviewed here, he weaves a story around the many endearing and difficult characters he met along the way.
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Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs tells the story of Jeremy Mercer, a Canadian crime reporter. When Mercer gets on the wrong side of a convicted criminal he hastily flees his native city. He winds up on the far side of the Atlantic in Paris and his money soon runs out. One rainy day, wet, broke and desperate, he shelters in an English language book store on the banks of the Seine. It is the eccentric Shakespeare and Company, full of tourists, book lovers and literary down and outs. Here, in room after book-filled room, he sees lumpy beds crammed in amongst the shelves and encounters people making soup in corridors. When he is invited to a bizarre tea party up several flights of stairs he discovers that the idealistic owner of the book shop offers free shelter to down at heel visitors. Mercer see this as the answer to his monetary woes and he quickly becomes a Shakespeare and Company resident. Books, Baguettes and Bedbugs is the true story of Mercer’s time at the shop. It is a chronicle of his personal journey as he learns to live on low funds in a city reputed to be one of the most expensive in the world, a tale full of the endearingly eccentric characters Mercer meets as he struggles to take stock and look for a new direction in his life. This is a fast-paced memoir, entertaining and pleasingly easy to read, a light ‘true story’ read.
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