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Originally Posted by Bookpossum
Indeed - interesting points Victoria. I think it only makes Florence all the more human and believable. She is always unsure of herself. Life has clearly been difficult for her, having lost her husband and apparently without any family for support. She had only the experience of working in a bookshop for a few years before she married.
Remember we are talking about the past, where (apart from during the war) married women weren’t employed. Basically they had to leave when they married, and that was still the situation when I started work in the 1960s. So self-employment was the only possibility, and even today there are plenty of self-employed people who are good at their line of work, but no good at dealing with the financial side of things, and that brings them undone.
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I agree
Bookpossum, she totally believable. In fact, I can too easily relate to her in some ways
I found her to be quite admirable. I liked her philosophy of life, and she was smart, kind, and very plucky! As you say, she was a widow in 1950s, with little money and no professional training, such as nursing or teaching, to fall back on. Instead of continuing on her path, she had the gumption to start her own business. Even today, half of all small businesses fail.
Florence may have made more concessions to commercial necessities if Violet hadn’t been in the picture. Violet was behind the scenes pulling all kinds of threads to sabotage the store, and turn people / pressure people against Florence, in addition to having a bookstore store open in the next town. She even had Milo go in as an assistant and close the store to sales, every time Florence was occupied elsewhere. Ultimately the townspeople allowed themselves to be cowered by Violet, so Florence was correct when she states in the last page that her town had not wanted a bookstore.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Bookpossum
I agree with you Victoria about the landscape, but I think it is also very symbolic of what is going on. In my review on Goodreads, I likened Violet Gamart to the sea:
She was checked for a while by Mr Brundish, but eventually she triumphed over him too, claiming him to be a supporter once he was safely dead. She was unstoppable.
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I think the sea is a perfect analogy for Violet - powerful and unrelenting.