Paris Notes May 2002

PARIS NOTES

May 2002

Volume 11 Issue 4

Ask a stateside bookseller if she'd dare open a new shop in today's economic climate, and you might receive an "Are you crazy?" accompanied by a polite laugh.

In the land of bestseller mentalities and Wal-Mart-sized book emporiums, an independent, non-chain bookshop is a dying breed. But here in Paris, though success is no less guaranteed, a Canadian entrepreneur’s little haven of expatriate literature has taken root, nourished in equal parts by romantic ideals and hard work.

"This is my small act against the negative side of globalization," said Penelope Fletcher Le Masson, owner and operator of a cozy, well-appointed shop named after the oft-cited William Carlos Williams' The Red Wheelbarrow. Most bookselling behemoths promote quantity at the expense of choice, Le Masson explained. Their idea of selection is 100 copies of the latest John Grisham. "But each independent bookstore has the character of the bookseller," she declared. Her shop, at just 42 square meters, specializes in classic and contemporary literature and children's books. The stock accurately reflects her inquisitive eye for quality writing.

Not far from Bastille, The Red Wheelbarrow opened last September, in the same Rue Charles-V location as three other previous bookshops going back to 1968. Officially known as Village Saint-Paul, the Marais quartier is surprisingly quiet, but it’s by no means dead. The neighboring streets seamlessly mix antique shops and wine bars with a slightly worn-around-the-edges Parisian feel. Other bookshops in the area, including a rare book dealer and one specializing in Italian literature, have attracted bibliophiles for years. The Red Wheelbarrow offers another reason to swing by.

Le Masson had already opened a bookshop at age 19 on Hornby Island, British Columbia, near Vancouver, but the idea for a Paris shop had remained percolating in the back of her mind. When she arrived in Paris more than a decade ago "with nothing," she became a teacher, but a year ago, enough was enough. "I said to myself, 'I know in my bones I could be a good bookseller. How can I do it'"? She enrolled in business classes, tackled the French bureaucracy and emerged with a loan and five-year plan. "The way I opened the bookshop was, and is, off the sweat of my brow."

Her shop's initial success serves as further evidence of the palpable energy surging again through the Anglophone writing community. The house is packed at a half-dozen regular reading series and literary cabarets, six new English-language literary magazines were born in the past two years, and visits from such literary stars as Margaret Atwood and John le Carré have increased. In short, there's a sense of "things happening," and Le Masson's store is riding the crest of that wave. Last fall, The Red Wheelbarrow launched the "A Blue Monday" reading series. More than 75 people crammed into the shop to inaugurate the event.

"The whole [A Blue Monday] event was a confirmation that a bookstore makes itself," she said the following day. "People are thirsty to hear what people have written." Because Le Masson's Anglophone shop is across the street from Paris VII University, it also helps bring two communities, often separated by language, closer together.

"It's really unlikely that a bookstore would succeed," Le Masson admitted. "I have three children, a husband who is a jazz musician, and a lot of debt on my back." But any concerns about the future only seem to steel her devotion to bookselling. "In the long run I don't want to earn any more money than is needed for us to pay the rent, eat and buy good books," she said. She then led a visitor to the poetry section to point out a particular poem she thought he'd enjoy.

•The Red Wheelbarrow: 13 Rue Charles-V, 4th. Tel: (1) 42 77 42 17. E-mail: good.reading@wanadoo.fr.