The Paris Bookseller by Kerri Maher - 3⭐

I was originally drawn to this historical fiction piece because of the main protagonist, Sylvia Beach. I wanted to learn more about her and how she came to build such a notable bookshop in Paris as well as fight against American censorship by publishing Ulysses during the time of Prohibition. Unfortunately, I found that I wasn’t able to find the rhythm of this story until the final third of the novel. There was something about the cadence in which events were shared that didn’t resonate with me, at times outright disorienting me. The vast amount of time that the novel spanned was incredibly jarring, but maybe that is just me. I do find that I enjoy really delving deep into minute details that perhaps others don’t find as intriguing.

Regardless, I still very much enjoyed the fictionalization of Sylvia Beach’s life, and was incredibly intrigued to learn in the author’s note that Sylvia, herself, wrote an autobiography. I think I might have to dive down that rabbit hole in the future and see the time period in which she operated Shakespeare and Company through her own eyes.