Review of "The Librarianist: A Novel" by Patrick deWitt

In 2005, seventy-one year old Bob Comet leads a quiet life. Every day, the retired librarian wakes up in his mint-colored Portland, Oregon house.....

.....and spends his time reading, cooking, eating, tidying, and walking.



Bob has no friends, no family, and feels no craving for company. Bob had a very fulfilling career, and now communicates with the world by walking through it and reading about it.

Then one day, Bob pauses in his daily walk to stop at a 7-Eleven for a cup of coffee.



Inside the store, Bob sees a white-haired woman - who appears to be mesmerized - staring at the cold beverages.



The woman has a laminated card on a string around her neck, that reads, "My name is Chip, and I live at the Gambell-Reed Senior Center." Bob guides Chip back to Gambell-Reed where he meets the manager, a friendly lady called Maria, who gives Bob a tour of the premises.



Bob becomes a volunteer at Gambell-Reed Senior Center, and gets acquainted with both residents and day users. These include:

Chip: the semi-catatonic woman Bob helped home from the 7-Eleven; Chip runs away as often as she can, but never very far or very fast.

Brighty: an inquisitive lady who's been married five times because she likes a big party.



Linus Webster: a lively fellow who whizzes around in a wheelchair; Linus was once as handsome as Paul Newman, but ruined his appearance with dissolute behavior.



Jill: a day visitor who can't feel her thumbs and likes to do jigsaw puzzles.



Bob's interactions with the people at Gambell-Reed greatly enrich his life, and provide some adventures as well.

Between scenes in the present, there are flashback's to Bob's past. These depict experiences that greatly influenced the librarian's life.

👨‍🔧 As a youth, Bob became friendly with a middle-aged autodidact named Sandy, who was a librarian. Sandy inspired Bob's ambition to become a librarian himself.



👨‍🔧 At the age of eleven, Bob ran away from home and had an exceptional adventure with two variety show artists named June and Ida.



👨‍🔧 When Bob was a young man, he fell in love with a woman named Connie and made a best friend called Ethan. The interactions among these three led to the best and worst times in Bob's life.







Everything comes full circle toward the end of the book, when Bob comes face to face with some surprising truths.

The novel is a bit slow-moving, but I enjoyed this character study that contains both comedy and drama.



Thanks to Netgalley, Patrick deWitt, and Ecco for a copy of the manuscript.

Rating: 3.5 stars