The Librarianist: A Novel

by Patrick deWitt

NATIONAL BESTSELLER 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.

Genres: Fiction, Historical Fiction, Audiobook, Books About Books, Literary Fiction, Book Club, Adult Fiction

352 pages, Hardcover

First published July 4, 2023

About the author

Patrick deWitt is the author of the novels French Exit (a national bestseller), The Sisters Brothers (a New York Times bestseller short-listed for the Booker Prize), and the critically acclaimed Undermajordomo Minor and Ablutions. Born in British Columbia, he now resides in Portland, Oregon.

Reviews

[Lisa of Troy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Some magic buried in a slow-paced book with too many unnecessary characters

Bob, a retired librarian, finds a missing senior citizen at a convenience store. When he returns the missing woman, Bob begins to volunteer at the senior center. Then, we flashback to two major time periods in Bob’s life and flash back to the conclusion.

Sadly, this book is a bit painful for me. The book is really slow paced, and, if I was editor, I would have trimmed it significantly.

When Bob is first introduced to the senior center, that section is too long, and there are too many characters.

The section about Bob’s wife and best friend I loved it. I would not have changed anything. I loved the complex backstory of each of the characters. Even though one of the characters hurt Bob, I understood why it happened that way, and I thought that it was such a moving, cool moment.

However, some of that was buried in the next section. Bob runs away and meets a bunch of random characters that I didn’t connect with. This section seemed to drag on and on.

Then, we arrive at the ending, and I loved the way that the author concluded the story. It felt really realistic. However, the ending (as much of the book) was too long. The last few pages weren’t memorable.

Also, this is my own personal preference, but there just weren’t enough literary references. The book is entitled The Librarianist. My assumption is that the target audience is bibliophiles, but it didn’t have enough to make me happy.

Overall, I am actually a bit sad about this book because I felt that it has a bit of magic in it. It really did make me stop and think. However, it was just too slow paced and had too many unnecessary characters.

*Thanks, NetGalley, for a free copy of this book in exchange for my fair and unbiased review.

Connect With Me!
Blog Twitter BookTube Facebook Insta

[Sujoya - theoverbookedbibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

Happy Publication Day!
July 4, 2023

4.25⭐️

“You know someone, and then you don’t know them, and in their absence you wonder what their life was made up of.”

The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt is a quiet, contemplative novel that revolves around seventy-one-year-old retired librarian Bob Comet. When we meet Bob, he lives alone in his mint-colored house in Portland, Oregon, surrounded by his books and his memories of a life lived with dignity and mostly, in solitude. Divorced after a brief marriage over forty-five years ago, he doesn’t have any close friends or romantic entanglements. He lives a simple, lonely yet seemingly content life. One day, he sees an elderly woman, lost and wandering in a shop near his home. An ID card with her address indicates that she is a resident of Gambell-Reed Senior Center. Bob eventually decides to volunteer at the Center, hoping to fill the time in his retirement as well as indulge in sharing his love for literature with the residents. Though everything doesn’t quite go according to plans, Bob does find himself spending time with the residents of the Center. A chance revelation that has a connection to his past does create a stir in his life and Bob finds himself mulling over the past and changing the way he contemplates his future.

The author writes with insight and compassion. The non-linear narrative takes a while to get used to, and the pace is on the slower side, which suits the story. Bob Comet is a simple man who loves his books and has enjoyed his life as a librarian, but he has never considered his life to be particularly eventful, barring a childhood escapade and his failed marriage. We follow Bob’s story moving back and forth between past and present, with glimpses into the people and events that shaped Bob’s life and we follow him as he gradually becomes a part of the community at the Center. All his memories are not happy ones but have contributed to Bob’s way of looking at life and himself. His experiences and interactions with his peers inspire Bob to reevaluate the way he has perceived his life, the people in it and himself. This story emphasizes the fact that not everyone’s life has to be defined by dramatic change or shocking turns, but a life well-lived can be the result of the seemingly inconsequential events one has lived through along with the moments of sorrow, joy, loneliness and companionship we commit to memory. Beautifully written, full of heart with a good dose of humor, this is a beautiful story that I thoroughly enjoyed.

Many thanks to Ecco and NetGalley for the digital review copy of this novel. All opinions expressed in this review are my own. This novel is due to be released on July 4, 2023.

“Because it’s a fool who argues with happiness, while the wiser man accepts it as it comes, if it comes at all.”

[Marilyn (not getting notifications) · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was excited about listening to The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt after reading the premise for the book. What could be a better combination than a retired librarian and a love for books that stemmed from way back? That was my sentiment. Bob Comet was a man of few words, a bit reclusive and even a bit weird. He knew that he wanted to be a librarian from a very young age. Now at seventy-one years old, Bob Comet had finally retired. He still lived in the home he resided in as a young boy in Portland, Oregon. Bob Comet had gotten in the habit of going for a daily walk. On one of those walks, Bob spotted a woman who looked out of sorts. Bob followed the woman into the pharmacy and observed her staring at bottles on a shelf for an exorbitant amount of time. When Bob approached her she headed outside. Bob soon discovered that the woman was called Chip and that she was a resident at the senior center so Bob escorted Chip back there. As soon as Bob entered the senior center, he had a revelation. Bob knew immediately that he wanted to become a volunteer at the senior center. He wanted to share his love of books with the residents. Bob wanted to read to the residents. He wanted to instill his love of books in the hearts of the residents. Unfortunately, it backfired. The residents had no interest in listening to Bob read to them. Bob admitted defeat and started just volunteering at the center. Volunteering gave Bob a sense of purpose and he enjoyed getting to know the residents.

If the plot had continued along the path of Bob’s love for books and his interactions with the residents I would have been much happier. Patrick deWitt chose though to diverge from this storyline and delve into Bob’s past. I found this part of the book quite slow especially the part when Bob ran away when he was a young boy. The plot managed to get back to the senior center near the end where Bob became a resident himself eventually. Bob’s admittance as a resident, led him to make a startling discovery that provided him with closure, a closure he spent his life searching for. Bob finally got rewarded with the answer to a question he wondered about his entire life. This discovery made the ending satisfying. The Librarianist started off strong for me but lost me about half way through. There were many more positive reviews for this book. It just wasn’t a favorite for me.

Thank you to Harper Audio for allowing me to listen to the audiobook The Librarianist that was narrated by Jim Meskimen through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bob Comet is our 71-year-old protagonist. Since retiring from the public library where he has spent his entire professional career, he’s enjoyed a life of almost uninterrupted solitude in the house his mother left to him decades earlier. He is devoted to his books. The story begins in the narrative present between 2005 and 2006.

In the opening pages, Bob encounters a woman suffering dementia and returns her to a nearby retirement center. Bob’s brief encounter with her, is enough to inspire him to volunteer in that same place, which surprises the center’s lax manager, Maria.

This provides the author with an opportunity to construct funny dialogue involving quirky folks. We find the author a master at the way he gets his characters to talk at and with each other.

The story goes back in time in the novel’s second section in which we have an opportunity to learn more about Bob Comet’s past relationship – meeting and falling in love.

As readers we are introduced to his ex-wife, Connie, and his best friend, Ethan, a fast-talking playboy who ends up stealing Connie away from him. We also see him in his job at the library, and meet the character of Miss Ogilvie, Bob’s first boss. Some of the excitement that takes place in this section remains peripheral to Bob and to the plot.

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.

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.

Even so…

There was something rather decent and human and thoughtful about him.

As readers we can appreciate…

How a nice quiet librarianist, who starts off helping a person, and then volunteers, and then becomes a part of something greater than himself, can actually be a sweet yet flawed imperfect, but readable story.

One last thing…

There will also be a little mystery that will be unraveled towards the end for readers to discover.

[Priskah · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,0 ✨✨✨

(Audiobook)

I felt this book did not reach its full potential. I had to take an entire ✨ because I think the author digressed a lot toward the final third of the story, more specifically, the bit that takes place in the hotel. I felt it dragged painfully for a good while, all that inconsequential play-by-play from characters that added little to the narrative. It was not engaging and I felt quite bored. I would've liked to hear more from the characters from the present time of the MC's life.

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

“The language-based life of the mind was a needed thing in the syrup-slow era of our elders, but who has time for it now? There aren’t any metalsmiths anymore, and soon there’ll be no authors, publishers, booksellers — the entire industry will topple into the sea, like Atlantis; and the librarianists will be buried most deeply in the silt.”

I’ve read many reviews of The Librarianist that say: If you’ve liked Patrick deWitt before, you’ll like this, too. And as I have read, and enjoyed, every novel deWitt has written so far, I expected to like this one as well; and I did. So this is either more of the samey-sameness that satisfied my set expectations, or it is objectively good — and I would argue for the latter. Centred on retired librarian Bob Comet, deWitt surrounds our reclusive protagonist with outlandish characters who speak in funny, offbeat conversations, and while that is all highly entertaining, as we scroll back through Bob’s history to his young adulthood and further to an adventurous episode from a lonely childhood, deWitt makes some very perceptive observations about what makes a person; what makes a life. I’ve also seen many reviews that call this too sad or plotless and I would argue against that as well: Bob is more an introvert than truly melancholy — taking joy where he can find it, but never really seeking it outside of books over his many years — and it all adds up to a plot that is recognisable as a real, human life. I loved every bit of this and will read anything deWitt comes out with in the future. (Note: I read an ARC and passages quoted may not be in their final forms.)

He had no friends, per se; his phone did not ring, and he had no family, and if there was a knock on the door, it was a solicitor; but this absence didn’t bother him, and he felt no craving for company. Bob had long given up on the notion of knowing anyone, or of being known. He communicated with the world partly by walking through it, but mainly by reading about it. Bob had read novels exclusively and dedicatedly from childhood and through to the present.

In the “present” of 2006, seventy-one year old Bob Comet lives alone in a mint green bungalow, inherited from his long-deceased single mother, on a nondescript cul-de-sac in Portland, Oregon. While out for his daily walk one day, he discovers a catatonic old woman at the convenience store, and when he returns her to her seniors residence, he is so intrigued by the home’s weird assemblage of residents that he decides to volunteer there. Through interactions with these residents, we learn more about Bob’s personal history; and after a shocking revelation, the story rewinds to Bob’s early adulthood, and then to an episode in which he ran away from home at eleven, before returning to the present.

I enjoyed each of these sections, but was most intrigued by the stories of his brief marriage and his running away; and mostly because of the characters and their deWittian conversations (between his eccentric wife and their friends; between the oddballs Bob met, and who took him in, at a dilapidated hotel near the end of WWII). This is excerpted from a conversation between two old vaudevillian performers who discover the runaway Bob in their private train compartment:

“Why must you ask me questions I cannot know the answer to?”

“It’s that I want to know things,” said Ida.

“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.”

Ida looked up, through time, rearward. “No,” she said.

“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.”

And the following, spoken by the proprietor of the rundown hotel, would seem to be the life advice that young Bob most took to heart:

“Someday, Bob, when you’re an aged specimen like me, and you find yourself suddenly enamored of folding the laundry or edging your lawn, remember your long-gone friend Leslie More telling you to accept whatever happiness passes your way, and in whatever form.”

“Okay,” said Bob.

“Because it’s a fool who argues with happiness, while the wiser man accepts it as it comes, if it comes at all.”

“Okay.”

Between young Bob’s passive-sounding “Okay” (or silent shrugging) whenever anyone is speaking to him and his lifelong acceptance of happiness when it came (but reluctance to actively seek happiness or too keenly despair its loss), this seems less like “sadness” to me than a persistent character trait: Bob was made this way, and he doesn’t suffer for it. In what I thought was a really perceptive observation, deWitt writes that as an old man, sometimes Bob dreams of his days at the hotel and wakes with a vague feeling of having fallen in love (although those days were not romantic), and that feels like a really true description of nostalgia to me; and especially nostalgia for the most foundational experiences of what made us who we are (I'm sure there's a German word for that experience).

There had been whole eras of Bob’s working life where he knew a lamentation at the smallness of his existence, but now he understood how lucky he had been to have inhabited his position. Across the span of nearly fifty years he had done a service in his community and also had been a part of it; he had seen the people of the neighborhood coming and going, growing up, growing old and dying. He had known some of them too, hadn’t he? It was a comfort to him, to dream of the place. His favorite dream was that he was alone and it was early in the morning, and he was setting up for the day, and all was peaceful and still and his shoes made no sound as he walked across the carpeting, an empty bus shushing past on the damp street.

When The Librarianist returns to the present, Bob is making connections with the folks at the seniors residence. He finds some unexpected answers to the small mysteries of his life, and although I would argue that he hadn’t been exactly unhappy during his decades of solitariness, he discovers a more connected way of living; and he finds that he likes it. From the entertaining sentences to the satisfying story arc, this was exactly what I expect from deWitt: and I loved it.

[Sam Quixote · Rating 2 out of 5]

Patrick deWitt is one of my favourite novelists working today because his previous four books were all fantastic. So The Librarianist was always going to be a must-read and one of my most anticipated novels of 2023. It’s quite disappointing then to say this was utterly terrible. It went from being one of the most anticipated to one of the biggest let-downs of the year.

There isn’t really a story, just a bunch of things that happen to the main character across certain points in his life that don’t add up to anything. Bob Comet is our main character. He’s a retired librarian who decides to help out at the local old folks’ home, curating a selection of his favourite stories to read to the residents - and then he finds out one of the residents’ identities, which holds great importance to him.

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.

For example, we’re told early on that Bob’s wife ran off with his best friend when they were all young and he never remarried. Fine - but the entire middle of the novel is the story of how this happened. And guess what? Besides fleshing out the wife and best friend, to no effect, we get to read in excruciatingly dull detail what we already know. The wife and best friend run off and get married. So what’s the point? I really don’t know.

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!

The first act is fine, the writing throughout is decent, but the narrative overall is a meandering, go-nowhere shrug of a story. Rarely entertaining and often frustratingly tedious, I definitely don’t recommend this one whether or not you’re a fan of the author, though, if you are, you’re in for a shock that this is by the same writer who gave us great novels like Ablutions and Undermajordomo Minor. Patrick deWitt’s other novels are well worth checking out if you’ve never read him before - The Librarianist is an unexpected misfire.

[Kasa Cotugno · Rating 5 out of 5]

With The Libriarianist, Patrick deWitt has once again presented his unique take on the world via prose that is so beautiful, witty and wise. Beginning with the ironic name of his central character. Bob Comet, a lifelong introvert and resident of Portland Oregon, who has the good fortune of landing his job at the library early on and "...felt uncomplicated love for such things as paper, and pencils, and pencils writing on paper, and erasers and scissors and staples, paper clips the scent of books, and the words on the pages of books." Anyone would be glad to have discovered their life's cubbyhole, but Bob doesn't recognize that fact immediately. This story of his life is told in segments, each in its own way, a gem. In his mind, "It was clear he suffered both from poor luck and authentic stupidity." To the reader, though, he is anything but unlucky, far from stupid. We meet him near the end of his life when the aging process is in full swing and learn of the events that shaped his character. Such accurate observations so beautifully presented. I could list at least a dozen more, but each reader should find their own favorites on their own. Highly recommended.

[Peter Boyle · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Bob wondered if her life was small in the way his was small."

Bob Comet is a quiet, unassuming man in his early 70s. Living alone and having retired as a librarian, he struggles to fill the time. One day at the convenience store, he comes across an elderly woman who is both confused and lost. He returns her to the senior centre in which she resides. And enjoying this visit to the centre, Bob decides to volunteer there on a regular basis. He makes friends with some of the other residents, and reads to them from some of his favourite books, even though they are mostly disinterested. And then he makes a discovery that turns his life upside-down. We flash back to when Bob was in his 20s, and married to a young woman named Connie. He also had a friend back then, a colourful, lively fellow called Ethan. And gradually we find out why the three of them are no longer in contact.

Bob is the hero of this story, if you can call him that. It feels like he's not even the main character in his own life, being as introverted as he is. But interesting things do happen around him sometimes. He's an easy guy to warm to, gentle and kind. And not bitter, even though he has every reason to be. I kept thinking of that Thoreau line ("The mass of men lead lives of quiet desperation") as I was reading this, and my heart went out to Bob. And I was thoroughly enjoying the book for the most part, until we flashed back earlier to when Bob was a boy, and ran away from home. He ended up befriending two elderly woman and trained to perform in their stage show. And this section of the novel felt completely out of place to me: it didn't fit with the rest of the story, and I found those ladies kind of annoying. So I'm afraid I'm deducting a star for that unwelcome detour. This book works best when it focuses on Bob's later years: facing up to old age and loneliness, weighing up his life and wondering where it all went. He's the kind of guy who deserves a shot at true happiness and you end the story hoping that it's finally coming his way.

Favourite Quotes:
"Bob had long given up on the notion of knowing anyone, or of being known. He communicated with the world partly by walking through it, but mainly by reading about it."

"Sometimes he could forget what had happened for an hour, and sometimes a month. But whenever the memory was returned to him, he never reacted with bitterness, but took it up as a temporary discomfort. Days flattened fact, was the merciful truth of the matter. A bell was struck and it sang by the blow performed against it but the noise of the violence moved away and away and the bell soon was cold and mute, intact."

"There is such a thing as charisma, which is the ability to inveigle the devotion of others to benefit your personal cause; the inverse of charisma is horribleness, which is the phenomenon of fouling the mood of a room by simply being. Bob was neither one of these, and neither was he set at a midpoint between the extremes. He was to the side, out of the race completely."

"Melancholy is the wistful identification of time as thief, and it is rooted in memories of past love and success. Sorrow is a more hopeless proposition. Sorrow is the understanding you shall not get that which you crave and, perhaps, deserve, and it is rooted in, or encouraged by, excuse me, the death impulse."

"Maria understood that part of aging, at least for many of us, was to see how misshapen and imperfect our stories had to be. The passage of time bends us, it folds us up, and eventually, it tucks us right into the ground."

[Melki · Rating 4 out of 5]

The passage of time bends us, it folds us up, and eventually, it tucks us right into the ground.

Patrick deWitt presents a look at a not-so-extraordinary, yet fascinating life.

I loved this tale of a retired librarian who after years of quiet solitude stumbles into a world of genuine characters. The book nearly made my "Best of the Year" list, but lost a star for one overly long childhood flashback that featured some over-the-top thespians. Still, most of the book is a gem.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Ecco Press for the advance read.

[Gumble's Yard - Golden Reviewer · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published today 6-7-23

He had no friends, per se; his phone did not ring, and he had no family, and if there was a knock on the door it was a solicitor; but this absence didn’t bother him, and he felt no craving for company. Bob had long given up on the notion of knowing anyone, or of being known. He communicated with the world partly by walking through it, but mainly by reading about it. Bob had read novels exclusively and dedicatedly from childhood and through to the present.

The Canadian author of this novel was shortlisted for the Booker Prize in 2011 for his second novel “The Sisters Brothers” (which also won two Canadian literary prizes and some other nominations) - an offbeat, eccentric-character-populated Western-based novel which to me read more like a Coen brothers film script.

This is his fifth and latest novel – and the only other I have read – and it retains something of the same offbeat humour and eccentric cast list (even including a Sheriff), but is a far more introspective novel and in fact is even blurbed as “a wide-ranging and ambitious document of the introvert’s condition”.

The third party character at the centre of the novel is Bob Comet (de Witt seems to share with the writer of some sitcoms the belief that giving your fictional characters out of the ordinary names in itself generates a level of humour). At the book’s opening in 2005-2006 he is a 71-year old retired librarian living in Portland in the slightly odd old house of his long deceased single-mother; Bob himself we learn was once married (to Connie) who not that long after ran away with Bob’s best (and really only) friend – the self-absorbed ladykiller Ethan (who died less than two years later in a hit and run car accident for which Bob himself was briefly investigated by the police).

Bob was for his entire career a Librarian and in fact has largely lived his entire life through reading novels rather than (except for brief periods) interacting with other people. On one of this walks around the area he encounters an lady – Chip - who appears to be suffering from some form of dementia and returns her to the Senior Centre where she is a day-resident and finds himself drawn into a volunteer position first reading to and then (when that is unsuccessful) chatting to the cast of peculiar, day and permanent, residents. Then an encounter with Chip’s son reveals a bizarre coincidence which takes Bob back to his past.

And most of the rest of the book is set in that past – centring on two major times:

When and how Bob meets Connie (and her freaky Priest-hating father) and Ethan - really the only two people with who he ever forms a close bond – and how the dynamics of that off-the-wall set of relationships develop;

An incident set exactly at the end of World War II when the 11 year old Bob runs away from home for four days, fastening on to two idiosyncratic self-described Thespians who with their two equally unusual performing dogs are en route to stage a wacky show in a run-down ex-lumber industry town, and where all they stay at an unconventional near-collapsed hotel with its own left-field staff and residents.

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).

If I had a disappointment it is that the book does not quite live up to what really first attracted me to the book and what I had hoped for from the early chapters (and some early reviews) as really capturing the life of someone who really (to take a quote from the end of the novel) believes that “the real world was the world of books [novels]: it was here that mankind’s finest inclinations were represented” ­to the extent that he prefers to engage with the world through that medium.

Connie, who had been Bob’s wife, had sometimes asked him why he read quite so much as he did. She believed Bob was reading beyond the accepted level of personal pleasure and wondered if it wasn’t symptomatic of a spiritual or emotional deformity. Bob thought her true question was, Why do you read rather than live?

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.

But overall this was a pleasantly diverting reading experience in my own life.

My thanks to Bloomsbury Publishing for an ARC via NetGalley

[Ron Charles · Rating 3 out of 5]

In 2011, a Canadian-born writer named Patrick deWitt rustled up praise from around the world for his weirdly witty western, “The Sisters Brothers.” The best-selling novel about a pair of sibling assassins was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and later became the basis for a movie starring John C. Reilly and Joaquin Phoenix.

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.”

Now, deWitt has published an exceedingly gentle novel about the hushed life of a retired librarian in Portland, Ore. Readers waiting for another book as irrepressible and strange as “The Sisters Brothers” will have to keep waiting. Which is not to say that “The Librarianist” is without charm, only that it presumes a reservoir of goodwill and patience.

Bob Comet, deWitt’s sepia-toned hero, is 71 years old, healthy, tidy and “not unhappy.” Since retiring from the public library where he spent his entire professional career, he’s enjoyed a life of almost uninterrupted solitude in the house his mother left to him decades earlier. “He had no friends, per se,” deWitt writes. “He communicated with the world partly by walking through it, but mainly by reading about it. Bob had read novels exclusively and dedicatedly from childhood and through to the present.”

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. . . .

To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...

[Leo · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was okay but for some reason couldn't get invested in the characters or plot.

[Diane Barnes · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

I never read The Sisters Brothers, his celebrated first novel, so this was my first experience of Patrick DeWitt. I really liked it, and never lost interest, which says a lot since it's the story of an introverted 71 year old retired librarian, who is quite happy with a life in which there are no surprises, living every day much the same as the day before.

Bob finds an elderly woman on one of his daily walks who is lost and confused. He returns her to the assisted living home where she lives, gets involved with the staff and residents there and decides to volunteer. This sets off a chain of events and we get Bob's story of his one friend, his one wife, and the betrayal that left him alone.

The magical thing about this book was that all the people Bob was involved with were outgoing, larger than life characters, very funny, and risk takers. He was the straight man. This novel had some of the most sparkling dialogue ever, and deWitt has a way with sentences that tells you all you need to know. His mother's funeral was a scene right out of a slapstick comedy, with a funeral home attendant " who suffered both from poor luck and authentic stupidity ".
About another librarian, "She spoke of a world without children in the same way others spoke of a world without hunger or disease."

To me, this book suffered from a lengthy section about Bob's one rebellion in his childhood, where he ran away from home for four days when he was 11, and got involved with a strange but well meaning group of people in another town. Again, the dialogue was the high point, but the whole episode, while making a great short story, seemed to have no bearing on the rest of the book.

Overall, a nice introduction to Mr. deWitt's writing that left me wanting more.

[Terry Abeline Carden · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book did not live up to my expectations. Reading the book's description, I was looking for a humorous, quirky recently retired librarian. What I found instead was Boring Bob ambling through life suffering from insecurities, painful introversion, and a lack of community. The story starts in the autumn of Bob's life, and the flashbacks of his life is where I expected to learn of how he came to be so alone and disconnected in his senior years. However, the periods of his life (early 20's, followed by 11 year old escape from home) were not successful in bringing together a life explained. It was like reading 3 different books, and the ending barely tied together the link. The 11 year old runaway section of the book did not add any "meat" to the story. These chapters could have easily been omitted. And I don't understand why the author chose not to make the flashback chapters chronological to his life. At the conclusion of this book, I just feel sad.

[Tracey · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an entertaining, well written, humorous, fiction novel. It has interesting, unusual, quirky, and likable characters, a childhood adventure, many laugh out loud moments, and a surprise. Everyone needs a Linus in his or her life! I listened to the audio version of this novel, and the narrator, Mr. Jim Meskimen, has a captivating voice and does an excellent job depicting the characters and their personalities.

[Yahaira · Rating 3 out of 5]

When you're loving a book, but then a 100 page novella is thrown in there 😔

-actual review-

I have to admit that sad sack lit* is one of my favorite things. A book where nothing really happens, but it's more of a character study of an introvert and their solitary life. Some would ask why a quiet life needs to be examined since most of us live this. I think there's a difference between a quiet life and a loner life. There’s something that gets me when I read about someone with no or few friends. Maybe I just relate a little too much with that life. 

deWitt’s book is about Bob Comet, 70 year old retired librarian in Portland. One day he helps someone get back to the senior home they live in and decides to volunteer there. We eventually see that this brings him into contact with a painful episode of his past. The book really picks up for me when we go back in the past and see how Bob became a librarian and finally starting to find his people (even if it is just a group of two). I loved the writing and dialogue, it was smart but still natural. But when I thought we were getting back to the present timeline, we instead go back further in the past to see how Bob ran away as a kid and had an adventure of sorts. 

Sure, this was still great writing and had some fun characters, but I’m not sure how 100 pages of this was needed and if it ever comes together. I guess it shows us Bob did have a grand life and has always had a way to meet eccentrics. But 100 pages? It messed with the pace which annoyed me. I wanted to see how his revelation would affect him and this just delayed that.  

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. 

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’m totally making this a thing

[Clif Hostetler · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a novel that tells the life story of a librarian. How exciting can that be? Well, not very. But I'll give the author credit for arranging the unfolding of the story in such a way as to keep the reader engaged.

The book starts off with our protagonist in his retired stage of life becoming entangled with a group of characters at a local home for the elderly. We're given a brief overview of his life in this opening section, and then at the end of the section we're given some startling information that ties his past to one of the persons at the nursing home.

Then the book's narrative backs up and tells the story of his life in more detail. Because of the brief overview at the beginning of the book we know his ex-wife left with his best friend, so as the details are revealed we know how it's going to end.

Then suddenly the narrative switches to his childhood when he ran away from home and he takes up with some traveling entertainers. This vignette is an interesting story of its own but doesn't impact the rest of the plot much other than give a little history of a sad and lonely childhood,

Actually, all of his life is sad and lonely. The ending of the book is underwhelming, but what can you expect from the life of a librarian?

[Joy D · Rating 4 out of 5]

Retired librarian Bob Comet has lived alone for many years after his wife left early in their marriage. He lives a life that revolves around routines. He loves books and his role as a librarian. Now that he is retired, he finds himself at loose ends. While out walking one day, he finds a lost woman and returns her to the local senior center. He starts volunteering at the center and begins to feel part of their community. The storyline flashes back to include his marriage and an account of the time he ran away from home as a child. I particularly enjoyed the segments about the senior center and Bob’s relationship with his wife. I was less enthused about the rather lengthy flashback to his childhood, but this part contains some very humorous scenes. Patrick deWitt is one of my favorite authors. He writes with empathy and wit. I will read anything he writes. I highly recommend this book to fans of character-driven narratives.

I received an advance reader’s copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

[Hannah · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bittersweet book. I still have questions, but since Bob did not care to find out what was in the letters from Connie and Ethan, I suppose I also ought not care.

There were moments that were really funny, and there were moments of deep sadness. I loved his friends Linus and Jill, and I loved how June and Ida took him in. I was dismayed by Sandy and perplexed by Bob's mother. Mostly, I could not understand how Bob kept fostering the relationship between Connie and Ethan and how he still was so fond of Ethan at the end. He certainly has a bigger heart than I do.

[Sofia · Rating 4 out of 5]

DeWitt going towards the ultimate goal.

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.

DeWitt does this, he has a simple story, a life, to some it might be quite a mediocre life, but it isn't. He examines that life and highlights and weaves and sees and while he is seeing he shows us because that is what we want with stories, we want to see, to understand, to connect and while connecting we feel seen too and that is the ultimate goal. We are seen, we exist.

An ARC kindly given by author/publisher via Netgalley

[♑︎♑︎♑︎ ♑︎♑︎♑︎]

Old people are hard to write about convincingly, until you become one.

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt is one of the more low key books I have read. It’s the life of Bob Comet, largely through Bob’s thoughts and words and covers the major events of his life. And that is both the strength and weakness of this book, for Bob is so intensely self-effacing, and shy ( or is that a behavioral quirk—I just can’t decide).

The prose is often very clever and well done but…and there is this but always arising. It’s the story of a sad man who appears to have loved his career at the local library, been very unlucky in love, and had one adventure. There is a flashback late in the book to a childhood episode where he ran away from home. I particularly liked this segment. Perhaps it revealed a potential other “Bob” that might have been. Perhaps it offsets later regrets.

I come away from this novel wishing for more but not sorry I read it. I will check deWitt’s writing again. My rating likely 3.5 rounded down to 3.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for a copy of this book.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is my third time reading Patrick deWitt, and The Sisters Brothers is one of my all-time favorites, so I went into this predisposed towards liking it. At first I wasn't sure about it though, and was actually a bit turned off by what struck me as some overly-cutesy dialogue involving elderly residents of a senior center in the opening chapters that didn't ring true. But damned if deWitt didn't take me right into this world as it went along - once I hit the 25% mark I fell right through the whole lovely novel. The sparky dialogue, touching insights, and narrative turns of phrase that deWitt splashes throughout the text are an absolute delight.

I need to investigate deWitt's backlist and plan to be there wherever he decides to go next.

[Bianca · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5
The Librarianist is about Bob, a seventy-one-year-old retired librarian. He's a placid, forgettable man, a loner, who supposedly prefers living life via novels

If you expect to encounter a lot of library and book talk given the title and the main character's job and reading habits, you'll be disappointed. I certainly was.

We are told many a time that Bob loves books, that he's always preferred books rather than interacting with people. I never felt the passion unless it wasn't a true passion just a way of hiding from society?

The novel is divided into several sections: first, we meet Bob at seventy. That part I enjoyed, it gave vibes of a Anne Tyler novel. Then the flashbacks come in, first it was Bob's only relationship that resulted in a short-lived marriage. Strangely, we then move further back to 1945 when Bob, an eleven-year-old boy is unhappy with his mum and runs away. Those flashbacks are written in the present tense, and are rich in dialogue and minutia, I thought it was unusual. The childhood segment didn't add anything to the story, it felt like a filler, replete with cartoonish, bigger-than-life characters.

Occasionally, there are cute observations, also clever and funny turns of phrase, but overall, this wasn't worth my time.

[Holly R W · Rating 3 out of 5]

This novel features a 71 year old man named Bob Comet, a retired librarian who has lived in his mint colored home since childhood. From the start of the story, you have an impression of him as a solitary person, who shies away from other people. Books and working in the library have been his world. Yet, as a young man, Bob met and fell in love with a vibrant young woman named Connie. She pulled him out of his shell. This was the best time of his life. During this period, Bob also became best friends with Ethan, a charming man who in many ways was Bob's polar opposite.

For me, Bob's relationships with Connie and Ethan were the most interesting portions of the book. I also liked reading about his volunteer work (at age 71) with the residents of an assisted living center. Unfortunately, there is a long chapter about when Bob ran away from home as a kid that bogged the story down.

Ultimately, this is an original, well-written novel. It left me with a sad feeling for Bob, who had missed out on so much in his life.


3.5 stars

[johnny ♡ · Rating 5 out of 5]

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.

you get to know bob in the most intimate way in this vonnegutesque novel. the characters are odd and quirky in the best way. it is masterfully written and so much fun to read. you will be constantly turning the pages to learn more about this man and his unconventional life.

thank you so much to netgalley and the publisher for an arc in exchange for an honest review!

[Danielle McClellan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Even now, ten years later, I remember how much I enjoyed the experience of reading Patrick deWitt’s The Sisters Brothers, so when the opportunity to read this newest, not-yet-released novel came up, I jumped at it.

Our unlikely hero is the quiet Portland (Oregon) librarian Bob Comet. We first meet Bob after his retirement when he chances into a volunteer opportunity at a local senior center. But, just as the reader began to think that she may know the direction in which this novel is going, it hangs a uey into important periods of Bob’s past, and we begin to learn a bit about the childhood and relationships that shaped his life. This is one of those modern Dickensy kinds of books in which the cavalcade of minor characters pop right off the page, fully formed. The novel spans Bob's childhood, his four days on the lam at the age of eleven when he runs away, his education and first job at the library, his friendships, his marriage, and his heartbreaks.

The plot is somewhat meandering, but the story is consistently engaging. Patrick deWitt writes the kind of perfect, weird dialogue that I want to repeat out loud just to roll the words around in my mouth. He is a true lover of language; every sentence of this book feels shined and smooth, as though it has been polished in a rock tumbler.

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?

Thanks to Ecco press and NetGalley for the opportunity to read this ARC.

[Krista | theliterateporcupine · Rating 1 out of 5]

It's very rare that I rate a book two stars, let alone one. This one, however, had absolutely no purpose, it meandered without a purpose and spent more time in the past, looking at dull moments of Bob's life that culminated in absolutely nothing, than focusing on the present day. I wanted so much to love this book since it sounded in the vein of "A Man Called Ove", but by the halfway mark, I dreaded listening to the audiobook where the narrator had long pauses in his sentences. By the time I was ready to DNF it, I was already 40% of the way through, and decided to stick it out until the bitter end.

I disliked all of the characters. Bob was such a boring protagonist and didn't have any backbone. Connie was a terrible human being for cheating on Bob and pretty flat. Allen was an awful best friend to Bob, but at least he was the most colorful character. There is a ton of talk about sex and relationships which is agonizing to get through and isn't revelatory at all.

I was hoping for more library-related or at least literary references, but that part was sorely lacking, which was a letdown since that was Bob's whole career and the title of this book. I found the first part of the book, where Bob is looking for something to fill is time with, more interesting than the majority of the book which is told in flashback. The author tried to add a little levity and positive message at the end, but at that point, I was just rushing to get through it.

Dull, Pointless, and Melancholic, this was painful to get through.

Thanks to Libro.fm for an ALC of this book and to the publisher for a physical ARC.

[Rebecca · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bob Comet, a retired librarian in Portland, Oregon, gets a new lease on life at age 71. One day he encounters a lost woman with dementia and/or catatonia in a 7-Eleven and, after accompanying her back to the Gambell-Reed Senior Center, decides to volunteer there. A plan to read aloud to his fellow elderly quickly backfires, but the resident curmudgeons and smart-asses enjoy his company, so he’ll just come over to socialize.

If it seems this is heading in a familiar A Man Called Ove or The Secret Diary of Hendrik Groen direction, think again. Bob has a run-in with his past that leads into two extended flashbacks: one to his brief marriage to Connie and his friendship with his best man, Ethan, in 1960; the other to when he ran away by train and bus at age 11.5 and ended up in a hotel as an assistant to two eccentric actresses and their performing dogs for a few days in 1945.

Imagine if Wes Anderson directed various Dickens vignettes set in the mid-20th-century Pacific Northwest – Oliver Twist with dashes of Great Expectations and Nicholas Nickleby. That’s the mood of Bob Comet’s early adventures. Witness this paragraph:

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.

(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:

“Bob was certain that a room filled with printed matter was a room that needed nothing.”

[Ethan:] “‘I keep meaning to get to books but life distracts me.’ ‘See, for me it’s just the opposite,’ Bob said.”

“All his life he had believed the real world was the world of books; it was here that mankind’s finest inclinations were represented.”

Weird and hilariously deadpan in just the way you’d expect from the author of The Sisters Brothers and French Exit, this was the pop of fun my summer needed.

Originally published on my blog, Bookish Beck.