Jeremy Mercer’s Holiday Gift Suggestion

Time Was Soft There is Jeremy Mercer‘s story of how—if I can be glib for a moment—he fell in love with the Paris bookstore Shakespeare & Co. while on the run from gangsters. As a former bookstore employee myself, I’m always up for tales of life among the stacks…and, like any good bookstore employee, Mercer couldn’t quite work his recommendations down to a single volume. But that’s okay…

For me, Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood is one of the most important books I’ve read and among the dozens of people I’ve urged to read it, there has never been a complaint. Capote is going through a renaissance, with two films about his life in the cinemas, and this is just recognition for a man who changed the face of American literature. In Cold Blood may be the first example of creative non-fiction, and even if he is accused of taking minor poetic liberties, it buttresses one of my central beliefs: True stories are always more stunning and emotionally moving than anything an author can imagine. On a personal level, the book opened a new perspective on my work. I was a crime reporter when I read it, and was sinking in the mire of empty murders and drunken car wrecks. Capote taught me these tragedies could be turned into something beautiful.

As my own book is an homage to George Whitman and his wondrous Shakespeare and Company, I would also suggest a copy of Dostoevsky’s The Idiot. This is George’s favorite book and he considers himself a real-life version of Prince Myshkin. Set between a cold Moscow winter and the white nights of a St. Petersburg summer, it is a stark but enchanting look at idealism and love and what sometimes gets lost when they collide. I guarantee if you walk into George’s shop with a well-thumbed edition under your arm, you will be soundly embraced and offered a warm bowl of soup.

4 December 2005 | gift ideas |