Important Artifacts and Personal Property from the Collection of Leonore Doolan and Harold Morris by Leanne Shapton

In his book Aspects of the Novel, EM Forster outlined a series of about six plot styles and said that all books conform to them. While this one is the boy meets girl, boy loses girl and then boy (sometimes) gets girl back again version, the writer has taken a really interesting and entertaining approach. She tells the story of the lovers, Leonore and Harold, through an auction catalogue. The descriptions of the items, which include many notes and letters to help the story along of course, detail their meeting, their passion, their lapse into mundanity and their separation.
It’s quaint and quirky and a very quick read. It’s a bit like a treasure hunt as you build up a picture of what the two characters are like as people. It’s also a comment, I think, on how in this society we define ourselves by things. 3 ½ stars.