The Librarianist

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Is it a spoiler if there’s no plot to be spoiled? Anyway, I won’t reveal the character’s identity but deWitt could’ve ended the story there because nothing that follows adds to what we already know of Bob’s life and the entire final third is completely irrelevant. I don’t know!” the cashier said. He was happy the woman was gone but also happy that something interesting had happened. And, finally, two more comments: 1) This book is very funny, and 2) the author fully understands how important books can be in shaping a person’s life. What reader doesn’t love a book that love books? Well, then, let us accept that we shan’t be alone, as was our hope. In brighter news, however, it does appear the boy is mute, perhaps deaf into the bargain, and so we can easily pretend to be alone if not actually live out the reality of aloneness.” The final third is another time jump to Bob’s childhood where he meets a pair of travelling actors and he sort of helps them in their local production. Again: what’s the point? No idea. And this is by far the most boring part of the story too and the easiest cut because it has the least to do with anything. But we get it all for no reason. What a boring waste of time!

Overall, ‘The Librarianist’ presents us with a rather interesting character in Bob Comet. He embodies an unspoken sadness that infuses the majority of the novel. The next day Bob returned to the beach to practice his press rolls. The first performance was scheduled to take place thirty-six hours hence; with this in mind, Bob endeavored to arrive at a place where he could achieve the percussive effect without thinking of it. An hour and a half passed, and he paused, looking out to sea and having looking-out-to-sea thoughts. He imagined he heard his name on the wind and turned to find Ida leaning out the window of the tilted tower; her face was green as spinach puree, and she was waving at him that he should come up. Bob held the drum above his head, and she nodded that he should bring it with him.I’ll admit another disappointment - not enough book talk. For a novel about a book lover, someone who devoted their life to books and was a voracious reader, there aren’t any actual titles mentioned (besides Crime and Punishment, twice). We’re just told he reads a lot. So don’t go expecting a book about books. This is about a solitary man who doesn't realize his life is impactful. Behind Bob Comet's straight-man façade is the story of an unhappy child's runaway adventure during the last days of the Second World War, of true love won and stolen away, of the purpose and pride found in the librarian's vocation, and of the pleasures of a life lived to the side of the masses. Bob's experiences are imbued with melancholy but also a bright, sustained comedy; he has a talent for locating bizarre and outsize players to welcome onto the stage of his life. When Bob is first introduced to the senior center, that section is too long, and there are too many characters. Now as you may or may not have gathered – when I wrote this review I had two resources to hand: an electronic ARC of the book itself and an online Thesaurus where I had looked up synonyms of “quirky” – as this is a book which does not wear its quirkiness lightly. It is written also with a wry sense of humour which perhaps did not quite land for me (but humour in books rarely does).

We all want to, and we are every one of us disappointed, and we shall die not knowing it,” June sighed. “I do wish it had announced itself. I feel rather nude, frankly. I hope we haven’t named any old scandals, or created any new ones.”What makes a good story, the elements within or the teller? I lean more towards the teller. A good teller is able to bring the simplest story to life, is able to turn it around and examine its elements going deep and deeper if he wants, showing what makes up the whole, the nuances, the consequences. That international success set expectations high, but deWitt, who seems as unflappable as his deadpan assassins, has shown no signs of feeling boxed in. His next novel, “Undermajordomo Minor,” was a gothic adventure, and then, in another course change, came a brittle comedy of manners called “French Exit.” That introduction of a life infused with literature signals a kind of Walter Mitty fantasy or perhaps a satire of fiction’s erroneous influence, like Jane Austen’s. . . . Three woman who join together to rent a large space along the beach in Los Angeles for their stores—a gift shop, a bakery, and a bookstore—become fast friends as they each experience the highs, and lows, of love. You can just picture the Anderson staginess: the long establishing shots; the jump cuts to a close-up on her face, then his; the vibrant colours; the exaggerated faces. I got serious The Grand Budapest Hotel vibes.) This whole section was so bizarre and funny that I could overlook the suspicion that deWitt got to the two-thirds point of his novel and asked himself “now what?!” The whole book is episodic and full of absurdist dialogue, and delights in the peculiarities of its characters, from Connie’s zealot father to the diner chef who creates the dubious “frizzled beef” entrée. And Bob himself? He may appear like a blank, but there are deep waters there. And his passion for books was more than enough to endear him to me:

wow, is this a fantastic nonlinear work of literary fiction. bob comet is a man who has spent most of his life as a librarian. in his older days, he volunteers at a retirement home with geriatric patients that are delightfully strange. everything changes when he realizes that one of the patients is his long lost ex wife. Because although we are told (a number of times) that is how Bob views the world we are not really shown it; as we instead see Bob in a series of rather dramatic incidents (the elderly lady rescue and sudden discovery, the three-way relationship and rapid marriage, betrayal by and then death of his best friend, the cross-country runaway and then in the final section a hospital trip and closing revelations) which are more novelistic in themselves. By contrast we get very little information on the books that Bob reads – which means that for us our true impression is that Bob lives rather then reads. I did enjoy my time with this book - there’s a warmth to the writing and it has an offbeat humor- and it does make me want to seek out the rest of deWitt’s work.I absolutely adored it. I loved Bob - his position over to the side of charisma and horribleness, out of the game, his notions and his demeanour ... This beautiful book took me far away from all my concerns. It's so wonderful, soothing and heartbreaking Behind Bob Comet's straight man facade is the story of an unhappy child's runaway adventure during the last days of the Second World War, of true love won and stolen away, of the purpose and pride found in the librarian's vocation, and the pleasures of a life lived to the side of the masses. Comet's experiences are imbued with melancholy but also a bright, sustained comedy; he has a talent for locating bizarre and outsized players to welcome onto the stage of his life. A third section of the novel takes us even further into the past when Bob is 11, which gives us even more insight into the forming of his character. As a reader, I wasn’t sure this section was really necessary to the overall story arc.