Shopgirl

Mirabelle is adrift. She, herself, might define herself as "stuck at a crossroads", but truly she's on no path at all. She sells gloves at a time when ladies no longer wear gloves; she is an artist with neither the connections nor the ambition to enter the scene; she's in a dead-end relationship with a dead-end guy.

She stays at the store, with her private art, in the empty relationship because she has no burning (or even mildly warm) desire to do much else. She takes her daily meds to stabilize her bi-polar disease, she indulges in self-love, and only occasionally wonders if there's more.

She is the central character in Steve Martin's "Shopgirl", and at first glance, one might wonder at the wisdom of spinning a novel (or, in this case, a novella) around such a hub. When in the hands of a genuinely gifted observer like Steve Martin, however, one need not wonder -- one need only immerse within the warm depths of this fine book.

It's been a long time since Steve Martin wore the arrow through his head, that wild guy. It's been almost as long since he dazzled us with inventive and brilliant comic performances in innovative movies. His current actor/persona -- playing the befuddled middle-ager in befuddlingly bad movies -- did not prepare me for a book so flat-out well written. His talent is the rare kind that paints broad and telling portraits with the smallest of phrases.

The plot, such as it is, turns when Mirabelle meets Ray Porter, a man old enough to be her father (and rich enough to pursue her with lavish gifts). He, in his own way, is as emotionally crippled as she, and as their meandering roads cross and divert, spin and dance and, ultimately head off into their own lands, each learns something about themself.

Or maybe they don't, and that's quite the point of "Shopgirl". Life is rarely about those moments that change us, those events that teach us to be better people. We are who we are. Mirabelle and Ray don't become role models for personal growth -- they simply live in their moments, in the same moments we all have.

This book is special, but not because of lessons learned and battles won. This book is special because it celebrates the life in all of us, the virtue and vitality inside those the city overlooks. "Shopgirl" is a warm, wry, funny (although not the "spit your coffee" kind of funny), literate, intelligent (and short!) read. Steve Martin is a novelist to treasure.