Parnassus on Wheels Christopher Morley 9781374856370 Books
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Parnassus on Wheels Christopher Morley 9781374856370 Books
This book is a “perfect storm” book for me. What does that mean? It means that I connected to this material on a variety of levels. Like most readers, I like a great story – this is one. I have a soft spot for books about books and book love. Something in my heart responds to any story that features a gypsy caravan [“Danny the Champion of the World,” “Patience and Sarah,” “The Family under the Bridge”…]. Finally, the subject of middle aged angst and the fantasy of being able to chuck it all and take to the open road in some grand adventure. “Parnassus on Wheels” mixes all those elements together. 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of its publication.Roger Mifflin is a traveling salesman circa 1917. He roams New England in a gypsy caravan selling books. He’s decided to sell his little mobile enterprise. He thinks he’s found a buyer when he meets Helen McGill – a 39 year old spinster living with her brother. Mifflin thought McGill’s brother might like to buy him out, but it is Helen who cast fortune to the wind. Together she and Mifflin set off on the open road and along their way they encounter adventure and romance, and we (the readers) get to learn Mifflin’s philosophies on life and books.
This book is a lark and an idyll. It’s escapist literature. In my mind I have established a village populated with my favorite characters from all the books I’ve read. Roger and Helen live there and their haunted bookshop (Parnassus at Home) is right on Main Street.
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Parnassus on Wheels Christopher Morley 9781374856370 Books Reviews
Christopher Morley’s first novel, first released in 1917, hasn’t aged a bit It’s still as funny, touching and thought-provoking as it was a century ago.
Spinster Helen McGill has spent most of her life as the unappreciated housekeeper for her impractical brother Andrew, who has made a name — and some money — writing books on the wonders of rural life in New England. When a traveling book peddler named Roger Mifflin arrives with a horse and cart housing a mobile bookstore — dubbed the Parnassus — Helen decides that, for the first time in her 39 years, she will embark on an adventure of her own.
The novel goes in a completely different direction than I expected, but I enjoyed every minute and fell completely in love with the feisty Helen McGill. This is my first book by Morley — a Renaissance man who wrote newspaper accounts, novels, essays, poetry and plays — but it won’t be my last.
And, if you get a chance to listen to the Audible edition, you’re in for a real treat! Nadia May truly captures Helen McGill.
What a weird little book this is. I don't even remember why I have it now, though I expect it was on the strength of The Haunted Bookshop, a book given to me by a dear friend, but which I've never actually read. I suppose that's a sufficiently odd explanation.
In any event, the story opens with a disclaimer by Morley that he is not the author of this book, but rather it is a Miss Helen McGill, who undertook the purchase of a traveling bookstore simply to keep her brother from doing it. Helen is not what you'd call a sympathetic character right out of the gate. She's an irascible woman of about 40 whose high-handed manner rubbed me the wrong way. She and her brother, Andrew, have made a comfortable life on their farm and she is angry that he has become an author who now neglects the daily requirements of farming in favor of writing about them. He spends a good deal of his time tramping about the countryside, chronicling the life of country folk, leaving Helen to take up the slack at home. She hates being put upon so much that she burns a great deal of the mail he gets from publishers who want to offer him contracts.
One day a stranger appears, wanting Andrew to buy his traveling bookstore, Parnassus, which Helen refers to as "Parcheesi." Helen tries to shoo him off but Roger Mifflin is persistent, and to keep Andrew from further folly, she buys the enterprise and sets off on an adventure of her own. She tells herself it's to teach Andrew a lesson, but it's soon quite clear that Helen needs this as much as she's ever needed anything in her life.
Her travels with Mifflin, who intends to catch a train to Brooklyn where he will finally write his book, Pegasus, the horse who pulls Parnassus, and Bock, the delightful terrier who becomes a companion and protector to Helen, (sort of) are all part of a journey of discovery for her, during which she goes from being Andrew McGill's increasingly bitter spinster sister, to being H. McGill, proprietor of Parnassus, a book-lover, and possibly a writer too.
In the end, Helen finds out what's important to her. When her brother objects, she tells him to mind his own business, and not to forget that the red hen has a hidden nest behind the coop, putting him firmly back into his place. When he takes a high-handed approach to her plans, and does something underhanded (It runs in the family, I guess.) Helen is an avenging angel, intent upon righting a wrong, and in the process declaring herself and her feelings.
There's a lot of charm to this book. The characters are all too human, but in the end they have become sympathetic and appealing, and I found myself cheering for them. So while I'm not at all sure why I spent the $0.99 on the ebook, I'm heartily glad I did.
This is not exactly a review, but more a series of comments about a most delightful book by Christopher Morley. What – you’ve never heard of Christopher Morley, you say? I hadn’t either – I stumbled upon him in one of those “you might like…” tags on (which I love). You may not have heard of him because he wrote in the early 1900s. And he didn’t write thrillers or blockbusters – he wrote beautifully crafted stories about lovely people and the things they cared about. And in this particular book – Parnassus on Wheels – that thing is books.
This is a positive delight of a story – a short but oddly weighty tale about a woman who discovers her love of books and book lovers in a highly amusing and thoroughly entertaining journey of discovery and reflection that doesn’t read like you’d expect a story about discovery and reflection to read. It has beautiful, real, characters and a lively protagonist that you’re going to love. The story is sweet, there are pearls of life lessons teased throughout, but it never feels heavy-handed. Overall it’s simply lovely and I can’t say enough good things – you’ll just have to look for yourself.
This book is a “perfect storm” book for me. What does that mean? It means that I connected to this material on a variety of levels. Like most readers, I like a great story – this is one. I have a soft spot for books about books and book love. Something in my heart responds to any story that features a gypsy caravan [“Danny the Champion of the World,” “Patience and Sarah,” “The Family under the Bridge”…]. Finally, the subject of middle aged angst and the fantasy of being able to chuck it all and take to the open road in some grand adventure. “Parnassus on Wheels” mixes all those elements together. 2017 marks the 100th anniversary of its publication.
Roger Mifflin is a traveling salesman circa 1917. He roams New England in a gypsy caravan selling books. He’s decided to sell his little mobile enterprise. He thinks he’s found a buyer when he meets Helen McGill – a 39 year old spinster living with her brother. Mifflin thought McGill’s brother might like to buy him out, but it is Helen who cast fortune to the wind. Together she and Mifflin set off on the open road and along their way they encounter adventure and romance, and we (the readers) get to learn Mifflin’s philosophies on life and books.
This book is a lark and an idyll. It’s escapist literature. In my mind I have established a village populated with my favorite characters from all the books I’ve read. Roger and Helen live there and their haunted bookshop (Parnassus at Home) is right on Main Street.
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