Review: Three Things You Need to Know about Rockets
Readers of Shaun Bythell’s books (Diary of a Bookseller, Remainders of the Day) will recall him writing about “Anna” from time to time. Anna is Jessica A. Fox. She tells the reader what took her from America to Wigtown, Scotland. She also introduces us to a side of Mr. Bythell that is not readily apparent in his recounting of daily life as a book shop owner and his caustic remarks about some of his customers and employees.
Ms. Fox focuses on her emotional and thought processes that enable her to leave a blooming career in the States and go to a remote book town on the coast of Scotland to work as a volunteer and to “write.” She also relates her joys and frustrations regarding her relationship with Shaun. I never felt that she revealed unnecessarily intimate details about herself, Shaun, or their friends. This is not a kiss and tell book. But it is clear that she and Shaun both needed to grow into their relationship. At some point real relationships do have to come out of the fairy tale stage and deal with the real-life issues of personalities, expectations, past relationships, etc.
Ms. Fox beautifully describes the scenery around Wigtown. She also writes as a foreigner living in a different land with different customs and expectations. She goes from metropolitan areas such as Boston and Los Angeles to Wigtown, a town of 1,000 that is embedded in a rural environment. Her description of her first haircut and waxing, as well as learning cultural differences is often times laugh-out-loud funny.
While Shawn and other employees were away, Ms. Fox would mind the store. For anyone who has worked with the public in retail or other venues, her words ring true.
“The list of offences customers caused was endless. Many were rude and obtuse, with a penchant for demanding discounts on books that were already under five pounds. Working with the public did little to encourage your faith in it.”
Nice to know that the experience is universal and not limited to the United States. The quote above came from page 278. A paragraph later, she relates her encounter with a 70 something year old who clearly just needs a little conversation. Fox provides here a gentle reminder that while the public can be darn right thoughtless and maddening, the public also includes people who are a bit lost and lonely and need a little conversation and to be taken seriously.
In addition to great story telling, I must say I enjoyed the beginning of each chapter. Each chapter begins with a quote from a book. The quote is always appropriate to the content of the chapter. And should you be in the Bookshop, she also tells you where to find the book she just quoted from. Here is an example from Chapter 41: “That great mystery of Time, were there no other; the illimitable, silent, never-resting thing called Time, rolling, rushing on, swift, silent, like an all-embracing ocean tide, on which we and all the Universe swim like exhalations, like apparitions which are, and then are not…” Thomas Carlyle, On Heroes and Hero Worship and the Heroic in History: Scottish Room, third bookshelf on the left.”
Another component of her narrative that I enjoyed are the periodic appearances of Herman Melville, the author of Moby Dick. He shows up in LA, Wigtown, and her parent’s place near Boston. She sees him, they have conversations, he even leaves puddles on the floor when he is wet from the spray from the boat. Well, if you are going to tell a whale of a story, might as well have Melville as your muse.
The one part of this story that I did not like is how modern it all is. In the fairy tales of old, the end of the “Once upon a Time” was a marriage and then children. They begin living in the same room immediately. Jessica’s focus is on being with Shaun right now. Several times in the book she eschews marriage; and the possibility of children is never discussed. Nor are there plans for the future, such as “this is who and where we will we be in 30 years.” Their romance is “present tense” with no eye to the future or developing a friendship that will lead to a strong marriage for tomorrow’s challenges.
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