The Little Paris Bookshop

Max Jordan, 20s, is an author suffering from writer’s block who lives in the same building as Perdu at 27 Rue Montagnard in Paris. Max’s first novel, Night, earned him praise as “the new voice of rebellious youth” (16). Uncomfortable with the fame and pressure, Max wears big earmuffs and large sunglasses, demonstrating his need to create a buffer between himself and the world.

Max is, in many ways, an archetypal sidekick. Max understands and admires Perdu, even for his shortcomings, and supports Perdu in their many adventures. He seeks Perdu’s advice, allowing Perdu to feel needed, and he acts as Perdu’s confidant. He is a first mate to Perdu’s captain; he mops the deck, opens and closes the locks on the canals, and does other chores around the boat. Max acts as a stabilizing force for Perdu, who is still lost in grief early in their journey. For instance, it is Max who realizes there isn’t much food on the boat and insists that they figure out a way to eat something other than cat food.

Max’s sub-plot revolves around his writer’s block. As Perdu puts it, Max has “lost his muse […] And so he’s on a quest to find her” (208). In traveling with Perdu and Cuneo, Max has new experiences and makes new relationships that inspire him. He eventually gets over his writer’s block and begins writing children’s stories. Through Perdu’s mentorship, and through his eventual romance with Victoria, Max rediscovers his creativity.

Salvatore Cuneo, an Italian living in France, meets Perdu and Max at the tango hall and joins them aboard Lulu after the locals chase them out of town. Cuneo, a hopeless romantic, lives his life on the river, traveling from place to place and taking odd jobs as he searches for a woman. Cuneo’s secret is that he found the woman years ago, and she rejected him. He is, then, not really searching for an actual person so much as he is refusing to let go of his ideal. Cuneo is searching for love, and he finds it with Samy, the quirky author of Southern Lights.

Cuneo is a wonderful cook, and is passionate about food. He prepares the meals on the boat, and eventually teaches Perdu to cook. Cuneo’s food plays a major role in reawakening Perdu’s joie de vivre, as the evocative smells and delicious flavors remind Perdu that there is joy and beauty in sensory experiences.

Manon is Perdu’s former lover and one of Perdu’s two romantic interests in the novel. Although she is dead, Manon is the deuteragonist, the second most important character in the story. She dies 21 years before the events of the novel but influences the narrative through her letter and diary entries. She and Perdu meet on a train in 1986 and begin an affair, even though Perdu knows Manon will soon be married. For the next five years, Manon maintains loving relationships with both her husband, Luc, and Perdu. Perdu finding a letter Manon wrote to him 20 years ago is the plot’s inciting incident.

Though Manon’s story is tragic, she is not a tragic character. Manon’s defining feature is a joyous appetite for life. She does not fear her impending death, instead believing that she will step into a garden and become light. Her decision to protect her unborn daughter’s life rather than have chemotherapy shows that even facing death, she is looking toward the wonderful future Victoria will have. In this way, she is a foil for Perdu, who has cut himself off from both the past and the future.

The passages from Manon’s travel diary strengthen her characterization as a passionate person who embraces sensory experiences: “I am my body. My pussy glistens when I feel desire, my chest perspires when I’m humiliated […]” (165), she writes. She feels emotions in different areas of her body: fear and courage in the tingling of her fingertips, shame burning in her cheeks, and longing in her knees. This too contrasts Perdu’s detached, cerebral experience of life, and as he heals from his grief over Manon, he begins to celebrate life’s vibrancy.