Persephone Books discussion

Is anyone else ready to discuss this one yet?
Loved reading this book again...except I did find the ending to be problematic (I won't give any spoilers yet). Did anyone else think so? Are they going to live happily ever after?

We're reading this book in January, and Persephone Books will send a free copy of the book to anyone that agrees to blog about it! Their email is info@persephonebooks.co.uk.

I loved this book. Good choice.

I love this one too! :) We'll be discussing this book in January, and it should be a good discussion. This would probably be a pretty cute movie! :)

Looking forward to the discussion. I have come across a sentence that has tainted the story for me....

Now I'm curious, Susan! :)

In the edition I have - not Persephone on page 122 where Jerome is fantasizing about his luck on the town and good fortune that 'no Jew merchant had cut in to snatch the rich heart out of the situation". It is appalling. An not necessary at all. Just another subliminal remark about Jews that stick to horrid stereotypes.

It is horrible, yes, but I am not sure it serves the reader any better to have it removed -- unless I suppose it was the author who found it problematic and removed it later in her life. But that is a complex debate.

Susan, I agree - it is really offensive to see comments like that about Jewish people. We've noticed that as a theme in a lot of Persephone books (including Miss Pettigrew Lives for a Day) - I think antisemitism at the time was so ingrained into society that readers didn't object to seeing this in the literature they were reading.

This discussion puts me in mind of the memoir by a Jewish writer, Stella Suberman, The Jew Store. From the book's description:

"In 1920, in small town America, the ubiquitous dry goods store--suits and coats, shoes and hats, work clothes and school clothes, yard goods and notions--was usually owned by Jews and often referred to as "the Jew store." That's how Stella Suberman's father's store, Bronson's Low-Priced Store, in Concordia, Tennessee, was known locally. The Bronsons were the first Jews to ever live in that tiny town (1920 population: 5,318) of one main street, one bank, one drugstore, one picture show, one feed and seed, one hardware, one barber shop, one beauty parlor, one blacksmith, and many Christian churches. Aaron Bronson moved his family all the way from New York City to that remote corner of northwest Tennessee to prove himself a born salesman--and much more. Told by Aaron's youngest child, THE JEW STORE is that rare thing--an intimate family story that sheds new light on a piece of American history."

The fact that the new department store owner in The Homemaker is referencing an actual cultural phenomenon -- that many storekeepers in small towns at the time were Jewish -- doesn't make the remark less repugnant, but I think it's always interesting to have some context. I also feel that the character in the Homemaker whose thought Canfield is voicing is not meant to be seen as someone particularly admirable by the author, just someone who is very talented at making money. Ironically, the words are something of a reflection of that character himself. "Snatching the rich heart of the situation" is exactly his own intention.

Is the line not present in the Persephone edition?