The Librarianist

The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Bob Comet (a fanciful name for a main character) has led a life of relative quiet and simplicity, or so it seems. He lives in the same house in which he grew up. The life of an introvert, he has gravitated toward the profession of librarian…he marries a woman who winds up running off with his best friend…

But this tale begins at the latter stage of Bob Comet’s life, when he finds an old woman staring into a milk cooler at a convenience store…she is lost…she needs assistance.

Which brings him to the Gambell-Reed Senior Center, where he begins volunteering, finding friendship and community with the older folks.

The story then flashes back to Bob’s earlier life…how as a child he ran away and joined up with theater folk…how he became a librarian…then how he met his best friend, Ethan…the one who will run off with his wife and then die within a year…

I wanted to like this more than I did.
I admit, there was a twist that came fairly early in the novel that I just skimmed right over and forgot about. It is well-written and tidily plotted, but the way it cuts off after a bombshell to go back to a childhood memory kind of takes the wind out of the story taking place in the present. I was interested in Bob’s life now, but that is not the story the author wanted to focus on.

It might have actually been too tidy for what it appears to be going for…a journey through a life that is shaped by books and stories but that is in and of itself not a great story, for the ineffable reasons I can’t seem to quantify. It’s a three and a half for me, but as Goodreads doesn’t do that, I’m just giving it 4.





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