Ask a Bookseller: ‘Peck & Peck’ by Bonnie Garmus
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Bonnie Garmus's debut novel, “Lessons in Chemistry,” published when she was in her 60s, hit the New York Times bestseller list and sparked a miniseries on Apple TV in 2023.
Garmus’ new novel “Peck & Peck” features characters who are equally single-minded about their passions, though the subject is not chemistry but poetry, said bookseller Kia White of Lake Country Booksellers in White Bear Lake.
“Peck & Peck” is set in 1980s New York City, where recent college grad Batter Gray has one real passion and skill: poetry. He lands what he thinks is his dream job at the prestigious poetry magazine “Peck & Peck,” where he winds up as a copy boy in the basement, which he refers to as the "bomb shelter." He quickly becomes embroiled in office drama. The magazine, for example, is run by twin brothers who hate each other.
White appreciated the “next level ridiculous” names of the characters, whom she describes as “both larger than life and super relatable.” Batter's mother, for example, is a typeface expert and designer.
“She treats her career and her passion so seriously, but also with so much joy, and I think that runs through the whole book,” White said. “There’s sort of humor in how seriously everybody is taking poetry and art, almost like they’re running it like a big corporate business. But also, the seriousness of that makes it all really beautiful.”
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