More About The Librarianist
From bestselling and award-winning author Patrick deWitt comes the story of Bob Comet, a man who has lived his life through and for literature, unaware that his own experience is a poignant and affecting narrative in itself.
Bob Comet is a retired librarian passing his solitary days surrounded by books and small comforts in a mint-colored house in Portland, Oregon. One morning on his daily walk he encounters a confused elderly woman lost in a market and returns her to the senior center that is her home. Hoping to fill the void he’s known since retiring, he begins volunteering at the center. Here, as a community of strange peers gathers around Bob, and following a happenstance brush with a painful complication from his past, the events of his life and the details of his character are revealed.
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.
With his inimitable verve, skewed humor, and compassion for the outcast, Patrick deWitt has written a wide-ranging and ambitious document of the introvert’s condition. The Librarianist celebrates the extraordinary in the so-called ordinary life, and depicts beautifully the turbulence that sometimes exists beneath a surface of serenity.
More About Patrick deWitt
Patrick deWitt is one of the famous Canadian screenwriter and author. He was born in 1975 in Sidney, Vancouver Island in British Colombia in Canada. Later, he went on to live in Washington and California. As of today, deWitt lives in Portland, Oregon, United States. He began his career as a novelist in the year 2009 with his debut novel titled Ablutions. It went on to become highly successful and was named as one of the Editors’ Choice Book by the New York Times. The second book written by author deWitt was titled The Sisters Brothers, which was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in the year 2011, as well as for the Scotiabank Giller Prize in the same year. The novel was such a huge hit that it was also nominated for the Governor General’s Award of a fiction novel in the English Language and the Trust Fiction Prize by the Rogers Writers in the year 2011. Author Patrick deWitt is one of only two authors from Canada to make the lists of all the four awards in the year 2011, the other one being author Esi Edugyan.
Thoughts on The Librarianist
I confess. I initially picked up this book because I loved the cover. (Once again, an indication that the right cover can help your book succeed.) And what book lover doesn't want to read a book about a librarian?
Although there are some scenes showing Bob the Librarian in his book filled workplace, this is a broader story about Bob the Person. It traces the history of three key events/time periods in Bob's life: his retirement and immersion an unexpected role, his brief marriage in his early twenties and his running away from home in the waning days of World War II as an eleven year old. They are events seemingly unrelated but they all were times when Bob Comet faced a crossroad. This or that? The book is filled with odd characters made unforgettable by rich details and emotions. And yet, befitting Bob the Librarian, it is evenly written - they are no great outbursts of emotion or action. Life simply....happens.
Although on the surface it is a simple story of man's life, The Librarianist made me contemplate my own life. What have been my defining moments when I faced a crossroads? If I had chosen a different path would I still be the same person or someone unrecognizable?
コメント