One of the things I love about the experience of reading is the pleasure of the unexpected find. It's not a book you heard about on NPR or read a review of on Goodreads or Amazon or even had a friend recommend at dinner. No, the unexpected find is a book you bring no foreknowledge or preconceptions to. A book that in some mystical, intuitive way hooks you there in the bookstore and convinces you to take a chance on it.
It's actually a little bit like going on a blind date. Some of the same excitement and anticipation, a little uncertainty and unease, and usually a similar sense of disappointment about half through when you realize, meh, not so great.
BUT, every once in a while (even perhaps a great while), you fall in love.
And that is precisely what happened to me this time when I picked up 84, CHARING CROSS ROAD at a used bookstore in Chicago and met Helene Hanff.
The lone quote on the cover is from the Houston Chronicle and reads: "The most delightful book of letters ever published."
The astounding truth is that the Houston Chronicle may be dead-on.
I've been a fan of letter collections ever since first reading John Steinbeck's A Life in Letters, but this little volume of letters between a New York writer and a London bookstore has a charm that is unmatched.
From the very beginning, when Hanff writes to the used bookstore Marks & Co., at 84, Charing Cross Road in London to ask if they have some old books she is looking to buy, I was captivated. I think in part it was the genteel style of the letters that drew me in.
Hanff writes the first letter in October, 1949, and for the next 100 pages or so we read an exchange of letters that spans some 20 years. Through these letters, a fond friendship forms across the ocean between Hanff, a struggling freelance writer who loves "antiquarian" books, and the bookstore's senior buyer Frank P. Doel, the store's staff, and even Doel's wife and children.
In the years following World War II, there was still rationing in England, which I don't think I was aware of. Hanff endears herself to the bookstore staff and Doel's family by sending them care packages of eggs and meat and other hard-to-come-by items for Christmas and Easter.
I don't know when I fell in love with Hanff, who is witty and amiable and sincerely caring. It may have been while reading the letter where she was bemoaning the fact that Doel had not shipped her any books recently and she wrote, "You leave me sitting here writing long margin notes in library books that don't belong to me, some day they'll find out I did it and take my library card away."
The love affair may have started then, but I was thoroughly head over heels when she later wrote, "i go through life watching the english language being raped before my face. like miniver cheevy, i was born too late. and like miniver cheevy i cough and call it fate and go on drinking."
"Helene, I love you!" I cried out loud, not knowing or caring who Miniver Cheevy was, but understanding the sentiment completely nonetheless.
The other strong appeal of 84, Charing Cross Road is its harkening to a slower time when letters took days, if not weeks to arrive. It made me feel me warm and nostalgic for the passing of a wonderful form of communication. It made me want to write a letter to my son who is away at college.
I had not heard of 84, Charing Cross Road at all and was surprised to learn that it had been adapted into a 1987 film starring Anne Bancroft as Hanff and Anthony Hopkins as Doel.
Hanff (who I think bears a strong resemblance to the actress Linda Hunt) was a fascinating person. An aspiring playwright, she ended up writing for early television, first for the "The Adventures of Ellery Queen" and then later for Hallmark Hall of Fame. She also wrote histories for children. In 1961, she wrote a memoir titled Underfoot in Show Business. She died in 1997.
It's going to be a little difficult to let this volume go. I know I'll want to read it again. But it deserves to be read by another reader who might also fall in love with Hanff, so if you're interested, let me know.
It's actually a little bit like going on a blind date. Some of the same excitement and anticipation, a little uncertainty and unease, and usually a similar sense of disappointment about half through when you realize, meh, not so great.BUT, every once in a while (even perhaps a great while), you fall in love.
And that is precisely what happened to me this time when I picked up 84, CHARING CROSS ROAD at a used bookstore in Chicago and met Helene Hanff.
The lone quote on the cover is from the Houston Chronicle and reads: "The most delightful book of letters ever published."
The astounding truth is that the Houston Chronicle may be dead-on.
I've been a fan of letter collections ever since first reading John Steinbeck's A Life in Letters, but this little volume of letters between a New York writer and a London bookstore has a charm that is unmatched.
From the very beginning, when Hanff writes to the used bookstore Marks & Co., at 84, Charing Cross Road in London to ask if they have some old books she is looking to buy, I was captivated. I think in part it was the genteel style of the letters that drew me in.
Hanff writes the first letter in October, 1949, and for the next 100 pages or so we read an exchange of letters that spans some 20 years. Through these letters, a fond friendship forms across the ocean between Hanff, a struggling freelance writer who loves "antiquarian" books, and the bookstore's senior buyer Frank P. Doel, the store's staff, and even Doel's wife and children.In the years following World War II, there was still rationing in England, which I don't think I was aware of. Hanff endears herself to the bookstore staff and Doel's family by sending them care packages of eggs and meat and other hard-to-come-by items for Christmas and Easter.
I don't know when I fell in love with Hanff, who is witty and amiable and sincerely caring. It may have been while reading the letter where she was bemoaning the fact that Doel had not shipped her any books recently and she wrote, "You leave me sitting here writing long margin notes in library books that don't belong to me, some day they'll find out I did it and take my library card away."
The love affair may have started then, but I was thoroughly head over heels when she later wrote, "i go through life watching the english language being raped before my face. like miniver cheevy, i was born too late. and like miniver cheevy i cough and call it fate and go on drinking."
"Helene, I love you!" I cried out loud, not knowing or caring who Miniver Cheevy was, but understanding the sentiment completely nonetheless.
The other strong appeal of 84, Charing Cross Road is its harkening to a slower time when letters took days, if not weeks to arrive. It made me feel me warm and nostalgic for the passing of a wonderful form of communication. It made me want to write a letter to my son who is away at college.
I had not heard of 84, Charing Cross Road at all and was surprised to learn that it had been adapted into a 1987 film starring Anne Bancroft as Hanff and Anthony Hopkins as Doel.
Hanff (who I think bears a strong resemblance to the actress Linda Hunt) was a fascinating person. An aspiring playwright, she ended up writing for early television, first for the "The Adventures of Ellery Queen" and then later for Hallmark Hall of Fame. She also wrote histories for children. In 1961, she wrote a memoir titled Underfoot in Show Business. She died in 1997.
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| Helene Hanff |
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| Linda Hunt |
It's going to be a little difficult to let this volume go. I know I'll want to read it again. But it deserves to be read by another reader who might also fall in love with Hanff, so if you're interested, let me know.
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