* Mirabelle is the "shopgirl" of the title, a young woman, beautiful in a wallflowerish kind of way, who works behind the glove counter at Neiman Marcus "selling things that nobody buys anymore..."
Slightly lost, slightly off-kilter, very shy, Mirabelle charms because of all that she is not: not glamorous, not aggressive, not self-aggrandizing. Still, there is something about her that is irresistible.
Mirabelle captures the attention of Ray Porter, a wealthy businessman almost twice her age. As they tentatively embark on a relationship, they both struggle to decipher the language of love - with consequences that are both comic and heartbreaking.
I didn't know that Shopgirl was first a novella before it became a movie. I came to know about the movie through the pirated DVD stall near my house a few years back. I haven't seen the movie yet and I'm not interested in seeing it. The novella was written by Steve Martin, the actor. He also starred in the movie version of it with Claire Danes as Mirabelle. So when I saw the book in Book Sale, I bought it because I was curious on what Steve Martin wrote. I'm not a fan of his. I was just merely curious.
There's nothing much I could say about this book. It's like I'm reading a science textbook where the things I read just goes inside my head and doesn't travel down to my heart. When I read books, I am usually emotionally involved. I feel the characters' pain, anger, happiness, and other emotions they show. But I didn't feel anything much when I read this book. It has no impact on me.
I'm going to give this book a second chance. It's not totally horrible. Maybe I just missed some things when I read it. Though it may take a while before I'll read it again since there are a lot of books that I still have to read. Hopefully on my second reading, I'd finally feel and get something from it.
Rating: 2/5
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