I love the lead-up to Christmas when Paris scintillates with twinkling lights, vibrant street markets, fabulous shop windows, and the delicious smells of roasting chestnuts and mulled wine.
However, this year, like at home in Dublin, sadness also permeates the air. I never needed a Christmas-themed book as badly in the lead-up to this Christmas, which has been fraught with international wars and conflicts, and violence on the streets of Paris my city of adoption, and in Dublin my hometown.
The Dublin Riot on November 23 replays in my dreams. When the violent scenes woke me, I reached for Ally Bunbury’s “The Love Department," the TBR book on my bedside table that I was saving for Christmas Day. I cast aside the novel I was in the middle of reading as I hoped Bunbury’s new book would be the quick fix I needed.
Last year at this time, Bunbury had us “All Wrapped Up” for the holiday season, with her book of the eponymous name. It created a wonderfully cozy ambience and I was anticipating the same entertainment and comfort from “The Love Department.”
Published by Hachette, the book launch for “The Love Department” took place in the Mansion House, which also features as the venue for a party near the end of the book, which thrilled me and brought me back decades to a job I had working in public relations for Dublin Corporation. Many of the events we organized were in City Hall where I worked, but there were of course also other events organized in the Mansion House, the elegant building that has been the residence of the Lord Mayor of Dublin since 1715.
However, the first chapter of “The Love Department” actually opens in Paris where Lando Shillington, one of the main protagonists, has been sent to work under the guidance of his godfather, Frenchman, Charles de Croix, a retail magnate lording over the prestigious Parisian store “Le Marché Cher.” The name of the French store is fictitious and maybe the author was drawing a tongue-in-cheek comparison with “Le Bon Marché,” the most luxurious of Paris’s department stores.
Lando is on an intense training course to glean the necessary experience to be capable of rescuing Shillington’s Department store in Dublin, which is heading down a slippery slope. Shillington’s is his family legacy that he will soon have to take off his mother Delia’s hands. His father died when he was a baby and the looming responsibilities facing the 27-year-old man are daunting. He hopes applying the same business structure used to great success in de Croix's Paris flagship department store will be the recipe for Shillington’s renaissance.
It is in the countdown to Christmas, the busiest time for department stores that Lando has to make his mark if Shillington’s is to be saved. Lando returns from Paris, accompanied by de Croix, and de Croix’s beautiful and highly eligible daughter Celine to tackle what seems to be the impossible.
Not only is business a worry, but his personal life is also on shaky ground. The night before he left for Paris, he shared a night of drunken passion with his best friend Immy Brooks, and despite the excitement of working and flirting with Celine, he is tortured by the fact that he may have ruined the most important friendship of his life.
Immy isn’t faring any better and wonders why she traded one night of mind-blowing sex in exchange for fifteen years of friendship. Confused and upset by the arrival of the glamorous but highly personable Celine on the scene, Immy doesn’t know if she will ever get her friendship with Lando back on track.
Celine’s French chic and charm continue to rock the boat and Immy wants her best friend, her "comfort blanket," back, but somehow she has managed to “turn him into a pincushion.”
However, the arrival of the de Croix pair also heralds positive professional changes for Immy who is promoted from the homeware department to the role of personal shopper for the store, where she adds her own special magical touch...
Speaking of magical, Lando’s kind-hearted great-uncle Stanley is a character that also jumps off the pages. This eccentrically dressed dandy residing in the apartment over the store incorporates wisdom and humor as he does his utmost to help the people he cares about.
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Seeing the Merrion Hotel and the Mansion House, meandering Saint Anne’s Street, Kildare Street, Merrion Street, Grafton Street, Camden Street, and around St. Stephens Green with the protagonists brought me back to Dublin. Bunbury’s novel anoints Dublin in a beautiful light and granted she’s speaking mainly about the other side of O’Connell Bridge to where the Dublin Riot occurred, her descriptions of Dublin still acted like a soothing balm.
Although she relates Dublin's incredibly high cost of living and the difficulty for Shillington's employees to find affordable accommodation, it is a Dublin far away from what we saw on November 23. Bunbury commented: “I believe the heart of Dublin is still very warm” and that warmth is there in each character and on every page.
While remaining well aware of what’s happening on the streets, sometimes you also need a book to switch off from the real world and escape for a while. This year, Bunbury outdid herself and “The Love Department," her fourth novel, is “unputdownable," and the plot keeps you hooked until the very last line. Pure, delightful escapism never beckoned with such an insistent finger and I’m happy to say I definitely found my fix in Ally Bunbury’s “The Love Department."
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