Serendipity in Cleveland ...

When I was sitting in Marseille calling independent bookstores to try to organize this book tour, the reaction from Cleveland was especially uplifting. Suzanne of Mac’s Backs was enthusiastic and thanked me for calling and made sure we booked a good date together. (As a general rule, all the independent bookstores have been kind on the phone, save for several in Alberta, Canada who made me feel really vulgar for calling and clearly didn’t want anything to do with me.)

With Suzanne’s phone welcome, I imagined Mac’s Backs would be a great time but never guessed it would have been so fateful. Beyond the wonderful store and people at the reading, there were two visitors who knew George and Shakespeare and Company extremely well.

The first fellow of note was a man named Martin, who owns the Barking Spider tavern in Cleveland (where we retired to after the reading for two bottles of Chilean red.) Martin eloped Paris in the 1960s and he and his new wife Nancy had walked into Shakespeare and Company. George, in his typical fashion, offered them a meal, a job and a place to stay. Martin remembers being asked to clean out the basement - a mission most impossible - and cooking soups with George on the third floor.

The second guest was David Burke, a neighbour of George’s in Paris. It should be said that George and his neighbours often don’t get along. After all, George runs a chaotic Bohemian bookstore with people and animals scurrying about at all hours of the day and night, thus disqualifying him from any Serene Neighbour award. David says George was always somewhat gruff and distant with him, which is a side of George’s personality that only people who know him for a while are privileged to see. I’m not sure if David took it as a compliment or not ...

Photos: Suzanne at Mac’s Backs, Martin at the Barking Spider, David at the Barking Spider.