Kim M. (Eucalia) reviewed on 6/19/2009 + 52 more book reviews

These are pretty much Helene Hanff's memoirs. She tells about how she struggled to make a career as a writer for years and years until she finally found a hit with 84, Charing Cross Road. (This struggle and her autodidacticism reminded me very much of Jack London's Martin Eden.) She continues to tell about how she came to write The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street (which itself is a book about her book 84, Charing Cross Road) and then how 84, Charing Cross Road was turned into a film and then a play. Over all, this was amusing, but Ms. Hanff comes off as being unreasonable and more than a bit batty--someone with whom, had we been contemporaries, I probably wouldn't have hit it off (not that I'm not unreasonable and a bit batty myself). I enjoyed this much more than 84, Charing Cross Road but not as much as The Duchess of Bloomsbury Street.

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