The Bookseller

Steve Pitt is a Toronto-based freelance writer and an award-winning journalist. He has written many young adult and children's books, including Day of the Flying Fox: The True Story of World War II Pilot Charley Fox.

The characters in this novel are stock stereotypes. Paul Stevens, a
young clerk in a second-hand bookstore, is caught between a domineering
older brother who will not let him go and a drug-addict girlfriend he
cannot give up. Other characters include a bitchy mother, a pompous
literary critic, a ditzy poetess, a bored rich housewife who thinks she
is a bohemian artist, a crooked cop, and a gem-in-the-rough
billiard-hall owner. The plot is also as predictable as stations on a
subway line. Paul’s challenge is to escape the anchor weight of his
brother and simultaneously save the woman he loves. Paul figures out
what he has to do, and he does it.

This novel’s lacklustre characters and humdrum storyline are redeemed
by some fine writing.