The Bluebird Cafe

by Rebecca Smith

John Vir owns a newsagent in Southampton - the only shop that still stocks packets of petrified celery soup, drosophila-studded fruit and boxes of henna. Lucy and Paul are his favourite customers - they live across the road above Snooke's Electrical Stores, soon to become the Bluebird Cafe. Stencilling blue doves below the picture rails and buying stripped-pine chairs from the Oxfam furniture store Lucy works in the newly opened cafe whilst Paul spends his time at the Badger Centre as a volunteer. Meanwhile John Vir thinks of little else but Lucy and invites her to the cash 'n' carry, hoping of course, that it will be a prelude to something more exciting, for them both ...

Genres: Fiction

Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

Reviews

[Richard Pierce · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really really liked this. It's written with a really light touch, and it's real. Life is like this, and can be happy and sad, all at once. The characters are real, too, because one moment you dislike them, and the next you adore them. Really worth a read.

[Andrew · Rating 4 out of 5]

Charming, if not entirely convincing.

[Bevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title of the book is lovelier and more evocative than the story which was whimsical and pleasant enough but meh. There was a kind of comfort in reading a book that feels familiar but it doesn’t so much beyond that.

[Sir axer · Rating 2 out of 5]

Nichts besonders...

[Melanie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quite amusing cast of characters with lashings of pathos.

[Tricia · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a shame that the characters in this are not quite as likable as you would want them to be. The story is uncomfortable at times, and without have anyone to root for, it begins to fall apart a bit. I wanted to like this, and I'll look for future books by this author, but I won't be recommending this one.

[Clare Coffey · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really did enjoy this book. John Vir was an interesting character as was Lucy. I just love the name of the cafe in the book- The Bluebird Cafe as I believe that the title means that anything is possible in this life.

[Tim Laven · Rating 2 out of 5]

A meandering story of a cafe, a child who grows up without parents, a lost father and lots of other bits.

There was not much more to this story that I can remember...