Bookbinder [of Jericho] by Pip Williams

BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS:
-Print: COPYRIGHT ©: August 1, 2023; ISBN 9780593600443; PUBLISHER: Ballantine Books; PAGES: 448; UNABRIDGED (Hardcover Info from Goodreads)
-Digital: COPYRIGHT ©: July 25, 2023; ISBN: 0593600444; PUBLISHER: Ballantine Books; PAGES: 446; UNABRIDGED. (Kindle Edition Info from Amazon)
*Audio: COPYRIGHT ©: July 25, 2023; PUBLISHER: Random House Audio; DURATION: 13 hours and 37 minutes; Unabridged; (Audiobook Info from Amazon/Audible)
-Feature Film or tv: No.

SERIES: It’s not identified as such, but shares the universe of the “Dictionary of Lost Words”. One could almost say while reading that book, “meanwhile, . . .” for this one—mind you, this one expands that universe.

MAIN CHARACTERS: (Not comprehensive)
Margaret (Peggy) Jones – Protagonist – Folder at Clarendon Press
Maude Jones – Folder at Clarendon Press; Peggy’s identical twin sister – has autistic characteristics – not identified as such
Louise (Lou) – Folder at Clarendon Press
Mrs. Hogg – Manages the folding in the bindery at Clarendon Press
Mrs. Stoddard – Part of the management at Clarendon press
Mr. Hart – Controller at Clarendon Press
Tilda – Former actress; volunteer nurse; Peggy’s friend via her deceased mom
Bastiaan – Belgian soldier
Lot (sp?) – Belgian refugee
Gareth – Compositor at the Clarendon Press
Gwen Brittain – Student at Sommerville / Oxford; Peggy’s friend
Jack Rountree – Peggy and Maude’s neighbor on the canal; apprenticed compositor at Clarendon Press; Army recruit
Rosie Rountree – Jack’s mother; neighbor to Peggy and Maude
Oberon Rountree – Jack’s father
Old Mrs. Rountree – Rosie’s mother-in-law
Mr. Cannon – Press secretary at Clarendon Press

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
-SELECTED: The title didn’t sound all that enticing, but then neither had “Dictionary of Lost Words” as a novel. I selected it because I had so enjoyed the “Dictionary of Lost Words” that I figured this would likely also be great—it was.
-ABOUT: A young lady, Peggy, working at the Clarendon Press folding sections of books for binding alongside her somewhat mentally compromised twin sister, for whom, since their mother passed, Peggy has felt responsible for. She longs to be a writer, but not only are women discouraged from acquiring an education, so is anyone of her station. Besides, there’s Maude to consider.
Opportunities and people enter her life that enrich, yet complicate it.
-OVERALL OPINION: I liked it as well as it’s predecessor, "Dictionary of Lost Words". It’s informative as to history and heart-warming.

AUTHOR:
From Bookbrowse:
“Pip Williams was born in London, grew up in Sydney, and now lives in the Adelaide Hills of South Australia with her family and an assortment of animals. She has spent most of her working life as a social researcher, studying what keeps us well and what helps us thrive, and she is the author of One Italian Summer, a memoir of her family's travels in search of the good life, which was published in Australia to wide acclaim. Based on her original research in the Oxford English Dictionary archives, The Dictionary of Lost Words is her first novel.”

NARRATOR:
Annabelle Tudor (From Starnow)
“Melbourne based actor represented by Ian White Management. Graduate of Federation University Australia’s BA (Acting), grad. 2016. Recent credits include Puffs (original and touring Australian company), Hamlet with the Australian Shakespeare Company and As You Like It with the Melbourne Shakespeare Company.”
Upon registering at first listen that it was a different reader than “Dictionary of Lost Words” I was disappointed, but quickly got over it. This reader is every bit as good, and I will be seeking out other books she has read.

GENRE:
Historical Fiction; Biographical Fiction; Women’s Fiction

TIME FRAME:
Early 20th Century

LOCATION:
England: Jericho; Somerville; Oxford

SUBJECTS:
Bookbinding; Education; Economic classes; Oxford University; Twins; Autism; WWI; Belgium; Soldiers; Hospitals; Narrow Boats; Canal life; College Examination; Loss

DEDICATION:
“For my sister, Nicola”

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
Excerpt From “Before”
“Scraps. That’s all I got. Fragments that made no sense without the words before or the words after.
We were folding “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare” and I’d scanned the first page of the editor’s preface a hundred times. The last line on the page rang in my mind, incomplete and teasing. “I have only ventured to deviate where it seemed to me that . . . “
“Ventured to deviate”. My eye caught the phrase each time I folded a section.
“Where it seemed to me that . . .”
That what? I thought. Then I’d star on another sheet.
First fold: “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare”. Second fold: “Edited by WJ Craig.” Third fold: “ventured to” bloody “deviate.”
My hand hovered as I read that last line and tried to guess at the rest.
WJ Craig changed Shakespeare, I thought. Where it seemed to him that . . .
I grew desperate to know.
I glanced around the bindery, along the folding bench piled with quires of sheets and folded sections. I looked at Maude.
She couldn’t care less about the words on the page. I could hear her humming a little tune, each fold marking time like the second hand of a clock. Folding was her favourite job, and she could fold better than anyone, but that didn’t stop mistakes. Folding tangents, Ma used to call them. Folds of her own design and purpose. From the corner of my eye, I’d sense a change in rhythm. It was easy enough to reach over, stay her hand. She understood. She wasn’t simple, despite what people thought. And if I missed the signs? Well, a section ruined. It could happen to any of us with the slip of the bonefolder. But we’d notice. We’d put the damaged section aside. My sister never did. And so I had to.
Keep an eye.
Watch over.
Deep breath.
Dear Maude. I love you, I really do. But sometimes . . . This is how my mind ran.
Already I could see a folded section in Maude’s pile that didn’t sit square. I’d remove it later. She wouldn’t know, and neither would Mrs. Hogg. There’d be no need for tutting.
The only thing that could upset the applecart at that moment was me.
If I didn’t find out why WJ Craig had changed Shakespeare, I thought I might scream. I raised my hand.
‘Yes, Miss Jones?’
‘Lavatory, Mrs. Hogg.’
She nodded.”

RATING:.
5

STARTED READING – FINISHED READING
10-8-2023 to 10-16-2023 ( )

This is another well-researched feminist historical fiction by English Australian author Pip Williams. It is a sequel to, or a companion volume to The Dictionary of Lost Words, set in Oxford during WW1.

Peggy and her twin sister Maude work as bindery girls at the Oxford University Press and live aboard a ramshackle canal boat Calliope, as full of books as a floating library. Peggy loves reading and dreams of attending University, although this seems an impossibility for a girl, particularly one brought up very much as “town” rather than “gown.” Maude is never given a diagnosis in the book, but possibly has some form of autism. She loves origami and struggles to express herself other than repeating fragments she has heard. The war brings many changes and new people into their lives including the very damaged Belgian refugee Lotte, the wounded Bastiaan and the high society Gwen. There are also letters from the front, including from their feisty, suffragette godmother-figure Tilda.

The book gives insight into the Belgian crisis during WWI, when over 200,000 Belgians sought refuge in Britain, the influenza pandemic, and the ins and outs of how to bind a book (probably far too much detail on the latter).

I loved the descriptions of the relationship between Maude and Peggy, and its changing dynamic. This book told a good story, although it was very slow moving in parts and tending to get bogged down in minutiae. It was good, but not as stunning as the reviews make out, and not as impacting as The Dictionary of Lost Words. ( )

Thanks so much to Netgalley for the review copy. I’m glad I gave this author another chance. I plan to go back and finish The Dictionary of Lost Words. I look forward to reading more books by this author. ( )

I fell in love with this book, and I didn't want to be over it. Luckily I had "The dictionary of lost words" right after. I traveled in Jericho, and it was such a beautiful trip. ( )

Pip Williams writes softly, so softly that she allows you time to embrace her characters, their surroundings and the opportunity to know them intimately. Her writing requires attention and concentration because she builds upon her story and its occupants every so slowly. There is much to be told but Williams prefers to drop crumbs and allow the reader to come to her/his own conclusion at the appropriate time with just a few words.

Twins, identical but completely different. One “filters conversation like a prism filters light. She broke it down so that each phrase could be understood as an articulation of something singular. The truth of what she said could be inconvenient; sometimes it made life easier to understand her.” The other aware of their differences feeling the need to protect and preserve. Bindery girls folding pages, one not caring about the content, the other inhaling every word, nuance and thought - they couldn’t be more different although they were identical.

“Keep en eye.”
“Watch over.”
“Deep breath.”

On the cusp of World War I the sisters live a basic life, because this is a basic story of a very basic fight, for among other things, the vote for women, a margin of equality for women, and the work that women have done to wage those good fights. The research is immaculate, for one who has no knowledge Williams introduces the reader to Somerville College, The Clarendon Press, The Oxford University Press always reminding that women had to fight for a place in education, had to fight to break the protocols of class. The story ranges from everyday work at the bindery, to the heartbreaking consequences of war and the Spanish Flu, to the friendships and love that take up residence in the lives of the twins, Maude and Peggy, as the days and years pass.

Intrigued by the introduction of “The Anatomy of Melancholy”, it made several appearances and other than addressing a vast myriad of subjects, its inclusion informs and allows the story to embrace the melancholy that Burton wrote about and that Peggy is feeling . It opens the story to the vast ignorance, even by a librarian, of how a book is bound and the segregated sections of the bindery and segues into “a love of learning and overmuch study”. This is an apt description of Peggy and her desire to gain access that is withheld, to matriculate, to be a scholar, to find validation, to be acknowledged.

I enjoyed this book and the attention Pip Williams attributed to her twins, their point in time and circumstances. Her writing is profound in its simplicity with a fine tuned ear to description and dialog. Many, many thanks to Ballantine Books and NetGalley for a copy. ( )