The Challen A Publication of the Harper College Honors Society Fall 2003 - Issue three power of language; it's for that per- Yann Martel - 2001 Harcourt, inc. Diary of a Book Addict son starving for the feel of pulp and $14.00; 319 pages yearning for the smooth cadence of multiple best seller, including "The phrase 'antiquarian book- ink It relies on a reader's ability to Chicago Tribune & New York sellers' scares me somewhat, as I absorb what's taking place between Times. equate 'antique' with expensive. I the lines and knowing what's under- Man Booker Prize Winner am a poor writer with an antiquarian stood, yet left unsaid. ? / -^feB^r-j^ Life of Pi taste in books and all the things I After several months of cor- has nothing want are impossible to get over here respondence, Cecily Farr— a secre- to do with except in very expensive rare edi- tary working for Frank Doel the math. An tions, or in Barnes & Noble grimy, bookseller— secretly wrote to Indian child marked-up schoolboy copies." This Helene about how the staff had 'grows up in is the opening letter of a wonderful determined what she must look like. Ian Indian book by Helene Hanff called 84, "We love your letters and try to jzoo, and dis- Charing Cross Road, the address of a imagine what you look like. I've covers a secondhand bookstore tucked away decided that you're young, and very (deep affec- in London, where a New York sophisticated and smart looking. tion for God. But whoa! there, writer sought to relieve her addic- Old Mr. Martin (an owner of the there; if your beliefs are not in tion for books and made friends bookstore) thinks you must be quite favor of God or indifferent as a with people 3,000 miles away studious-looking in spite of your donkey, do not turn away for (I This collection of letters wonderful sense of humor" (12). promise) there is nothing on deck between a bookseller and a writer Helene laughed that off and mod- trying to persuade. Because spanned 20 years. With each letter, estly told Cecily to "... tell him I'm Piscine "Pi" Patel is nothing of an the relationship between them slid so unstudious that I never went to evangelist, but a passionate son of closer together and chronicled sev- college. And I'm about as smart- God the novel is far and vastly eral important events at that time: looking as a Broadway panhandler. informative without that touchy post World War II London, the I live in moth-eaten sweaters and pretext. The boy, of age sixteen at Dodgers in the 1955 World Series, wool slacks" (13). What's amazing the time, uses Christianity, Hindu and the 1960 US. presidential cam- is Helene's grasp of language even and Islam as freeways like a spiri- paign. This book isn't for everyone. though she's self-taught. Reading a tual plexus to his God. In that, It's for people who appreciate the large variety of books, she'd there is a point of rolling impor- Continued on the next page.. Continued on page 3.. Tender is the Night She Said Yes 2 * The Challenger Fall 2003 84 continued from page 1 expanded her vocabulary and had friends- of-Miss- bookstore. Its value was well appre- only increased her hunger for more Hanff. Everybody in ciated. While there was an imposed to read. She especially loved sec- the place wanted to meat ration set at about 20 cents per ondhand books since the previous wine and dine us. person per week in 1951, British owner left his own opinions about We barely got out government aggressively proposed the novel, whether it's penciled alive." an increase in weapons spending in scribbling in the margin, or a worn Frank Doel was Helene 's the billions because of the conflict binding that opened to a passage drug supplier, as she was addicted to with Korea and the threat of com- often visited. Helene gleefully told books. She relied on his vast knowl- munism. She told Frank, "Brian Frank, "Savage Landor arrived safely edge and his ability to get them, if told me you are rationed to two and promptly fell open to a Roman not immediately, then he knew ounces of meat per family per week dialogue where two cities had just where to find them. She demon- and one egg per person per month been destroyed by war and every- strated her loyalty by reassuring and I was appalled" (7). In 1955, body was being crucified and beg- Frank, "Never wonder if I've found Helene asked Frank to cheer for her ging passing soldiers to run them somewhere else anymore. Why favorite team, the Brooklyn Dodgers through and end their agony It'll should I run all the way down to while they were about to play be a relief to turn to Aesop or against their most intense rivals, the I/1*1 St. to buy dirty, badly made Rhodope where all you have to books when I can buy clean, beauti- New York Yankees. "I shall be worry about is a famine. I do love ful ones from you without leaving obliged if you send Nora and the secondhand books that open to the the typewriter? From where I sit, girls to church every Sunday for the page some previous owner read next month to pray for the contin- London's a lot closer than 17"1 oftenest" (7). ued health and strength of Messrs, Throughout her letters, Gilliam, Reese, Snider, Campanella, Frank and Helene share a Helene wanted to visit Frank and Robinson, Hodges, Furillo, Podres, passion for history and for books the Charing Cross Road staff, but Newcombe, and Labine, collectively most especially London, stacked themselves. After his death on known as the Brooklyn Dodgers" with its dusty history that's waiting December 22nd, 1968, Frank's wife (61). In 1960, Helene spoke of her to be read. It was often a sore point Nora wrote a description of him to political leanings when she com- for Helene when her friends were Helene that spotlighted his gentile mented on newspaper stories that able to see London, who were anx- nature. "I only wish that you had spoke of the Democratic presiden- ious to peek at her "family" that's met Frank and known him personal- tial upset over the Republicans. The 3,000 miles away Her friends ly, he was the most well-adjusted Democratic nominees were: Lyndon Ginny and Ed sent this postcard to person with a marvelous sense of B. Johnson, Stuart Symington, her: humor, and now I realize such a Hubert H. Humphrey, and John F. "You might have modest person, as I have had letters Kennedy. She says, "I belong to a warned us! We from all over to pay him tribute and Democratic club, there were four- walked into your so many people in the book trade teen men over there the other night, bookstore and said say he was knowledgeable and eleven of them lawyers, came home we were friends of imparted his knowledge with kind- and read a couple of newspaper sto- yours and were near- ness to all and sundry" (93). ries about the presidential hope- ly mobbed. Your There are several points fuls— Stevenson, Humphrey, Frank wanted to take within 84y Glaring Cross Road that Kennedy, Stassen, Nixon— all us home for the give historical references to impor- lawyers but Humphrey (79). weekend. Mr. Marks tant milestones of our past. Upon Reading these letters connected me came from the back hearing from her friend that meat to an amazing and personal sense of the store just to was rationed, she felt outraged and history shake hands with sent over parcels to those at the It's easy to see the power continued on page 3... 3 * The Challenger Fall 2003 84 continued from page 2 PI continued from page 1 that language has in this work In a The shelves go on forever. They go tance. letter to Frank, Helene was appalled up to the ceiling and the/re old and But to write more on that over the abuse of the English lan- kind of grey, like old oak that has would be misleading; the religious guage that she saw everyday. Since absorbed so much dust over the aspect is only about a third of the her self-education enlightened her years they no longer are their true about what the words actually color" (28). Woe is me, and wistful tale. meant, she's horrified that words sigh! I can picture myself there, Zoo were contorted and stretched to do running my fingers over the tips of keeping heads things that they weren't meant to do. the dust-blanketed shelves, glancing up a great deal For example, while she's looking for at titles in languages unknown, and of the novel, a new apartment she read a sign that hearing the creak of the oaken mostly to teach naively stated, "One and Two floorboards beneath me. animalistic rela- Bedroom Apartments at Rents That 84, Charing Cross Road was tions, but also to Make Sense." She rightfully pointed adapted to a play It was also made show an ani- out "Rents do NOT make sense. into a full-length film in 1987. And prices do not sit around being Directed by David Hugh Jones, it mal's attitude towards a domestic reasonable for anything, no matter stared Anne Bancroft, making a per- enclosure.