I’m revisiting Florence’s feelings about books, even though we’ve established that we won’t convince one another.
When I was rereading these passages, I was struck by how Fitzgerald seems to keeps things uncertain. Just as we’re zigging she zags. So it’s easy to have different interpretations of the same content. Not a criticism, just an observation about her preferences.
In addition to
Bookpossum’s excellent list, we know that Florence’s primary concern was to offer the community ‘good’ books. Also, she went ahead with the library, twice, even though it was more trouble for her than it was worth, for the sake of people who wanted more to read. Finally she mentions that Christine is not a reader, which implies that it stood out as being unusual to her.
On the other hand, when she and Milo discuss
Lolita, she says “I am a retailer, and I haven’t been trained to understand the arts and I don’t know whether a book is a masterpiece or not.”
That said, in the
Lolita discussions with both Milo and Mr. Brundish they ask Florence directly about her thoughts. She has explored the book on her own, and knew what she thought.
I felt she cared very deeply about books and the importance of reading, but just lacked confidence in her own judgement about their artistic merit. That’s not uncommon; my parents, who were voracious readers, would likely have felt the same way simply because they’d never been to university. But I can see why someone would conclude Florence wasn’t passionate about books. I did a search and couldn’t find an example of a book she was reading.
Another zigzag for me was about the extent of Mr. Brundish’s loneliness. He is initially portrayed as alone and a recluse. In describing the visit Fitzgerald says “He wanted to welcome her but was more used to threatening, and the change of attitude was difficult for him.” But later we learn that he has children, grandchildren and family all over the globe who visit him. He also has a stream of important visitors from London and the universities, etc, that Violet feels jealous about. So he regularly entertains.
The shifting perspective seems intentional to me. Perhaps Fitzgerald’s wants to caution readers that people aren’t always as they appear. That would explain the General; he doesn’t seem to understand what Violet is really like, and he believes her when she lies to him, but you still get the feeling he’s uncomfortable.