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3.54 AVERAGE
3.54 AVERAGE
I'm still trying to sort out exactly how I feel about this book, but I think I can safely say that it's amazing.
Lucy is a 26-year-old coasting through life -- her job as a children's librarian is the result of an alumni connection and her only friend is another library employee who is apparently in love with her. Her only goal in life is to not be like her father, a Russian immigrant with obvious underworld ties. She's likable and relatable, although I wanted to shake her many times, sometimes for her lack of motivation and sometimes because of her lack of restraint.
The premise of the book is that Ian, one of the library's young patrons, runs away from home and then persuades/forces Lucy to take him on a cross-country trip. Of course, there's more to the story than that. Lucy has already come under fire from Ian's fundamentalist Christian mother for giving the boy books that do not contain "the breath of God," and she's discovered that Ian is enrolled in anti-gay classes.
As Lucy's poor (albeit well-intentioned) choices snowball out of control, she learns new things about her own family and friends that make her question many of her assumptions about her life. You know from the beginning that everything won't turn out well. If common sense doesn't dictate that, the prologue gives a good clue. And yet, this book was impossible for me to put down. I had to see it to it's final, painful (although not completely hopeless) conclusion.
The story in itself is excellent and thought-provoking. What pushes this book over the top is all the literary references, from Nabokov allusions to emulations of various well-loved children's books: If You Give a Librarian a Closet, an untitled addition which could be called "The Very Hungry Librarian", etc.
Lucy is a 26-year-old coasting through life -- her job as a children's librarian is the result of an alumni connection and her only friend is another library employee who is apparently in love with her. Her only goal in life is to not be like her father, a Russian immigrant with obvious underworld ties. She's likable and relatable, although I wanted to shake her many times, sometimes for her lack of motivation and sometimes because of her lack of restraint.
The premise of the book is that Ian, one of the library's young patrons, runs away from home and then persuades/forces Lucy to take him on a cross-country trip. Of course, there's more to the story than that. Lucy has already come under fire from Ian's fundamentalist Christian mother for giving the boy books that do not contain "the breath of God," and she's discovered that Ian is enrolled in anti-gay classes.
As Lucy's poor (albeit well-intentioned) choices snowball out of control, she learns new things about her own family and friends that make her question many of her assumptions about her life. You know from the beginning that everything won't turn out well. If common sense doesn't dictate that, the prologue gives a good clue. And yet, this book was impossible for me to put down. I had to see it to it's final, painful (although not completely hopeless) conclusion.
The story in itself is excellent and thought-provoking. What pushes this book over the top is all the literary references, from Nabokov allusions to emulations of various well-loved children's books: If You Give a Librarian a Closet, an untitled addition which could be called "The Very Hungry Librarian", etc.
A delight! This perfectly charming tale of a misfit kid and the young librarian that befriends him is a great read. 4.5 stars.
adventurous
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
though it is, at times, hard to empathize with Lucy's actions, her motives are so clear to me. i felt myself being whisked along a rollercoaster of "you can't go home" to maybe "home is the only place you can go". deeply excited to read more Makkai.
Man, this one was disappointing for me. Honestly, part of me thinks this is lower than a 3-star one for me.
I think my expectations were just too high for this one. One of my co-workers uncovered this for a reading challenge we did at work a couple of years ago, and the book made the rounds and was pretty well-liked by those who read it I think. And last year (or earlier this year maybe, I can't remember and am too lazy to look it up), I read The Great Believers and that was such a remarkable book. One that imprinted itself on my heart.
The Borrower though? It was kind of a mess for me. For starters, I just didn't find Lucy Hull particularly interesting or, honestly, likable. In fact, I found her to be whiny and actually kind of rude. She seemed to take for granted the people she had in her life. The part of the story that involved her Russian father felt a bit forced, and the entire storyline was honestly super over the top for me. Your favorite child at the library runs away to the library, you find him there, and decide to....put him in your car and drive out of town? Her thought process made no sense to me whatsoever.
Even Ian wasn't as engaging as I would have liked for him to be. Sure, he had spunk, but I never felt like I knew him. The only way the reader really gets to know Ian is through Lucy's view of him, her projection of who he is onto him. It's hard to even know how accurate that is - overall he's a pretty emotionally closed-off kid, honestly. He doesn't give the reader (or at least this reader) much to work with.
Here's the thing too - there is a love of books here that is very readily apparent. Lucy is (reluctantly) working as a children's librarian, and there are a number of chapters that either begin or entirely consist of plays on various children's books (If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, choose-your-own-adventure stories, etc.). Those are clever and interesting, and belie a love of literature, on top of fitting well with Lucy's own personality/occupation. But as a librarian, I didn't appreciate the portrayal of librarians in the book. Lucy doesn't regard her job very highly, her boss, the head librarian is portrayed as a clueless drunk, and even a librarian that Lucy and Ian encounter later is portrayed as rude and not particularly helpful. It really, really bothered me. And maybe that's just me being too sensitive, but it was really annoying to me.
That being said, there are moments of brilliance here. And given that this was Makkai's first novel, you can see seeds of what will come in future writing. The epilogue (of sorts) at the end is beautifully written - probably the strongest two or three pages of the entire book. I just wish more of that was there, and that more of the story somehow tied together. As Lucy herself discusses at various points in the book -- the events that take place almost feel like they could have been a dream -- which makes it all feel low stakes and kind of disappointing in the end, honestly.
I think my expectations were just too high for this one. One of my co-workers uncovered this for a reading challenge we did at work a couple of years ago, and the book made the rounds and was pretty well-liked by those who read it I think. And last year (or earlier this year maybe, I can't remember and am too lazy to look it up), I read The Great Believers and that was such a remarkable book. One that imprinted itself on my heart.
The Borrower though? It was kind of a mess for me. For starters, I just didn't find Lucy Hull particularly interesting or, honestly, likable. In fact, I found her to be whiny and actually kind of rude. She seemed to take for granted the people she had in her life. The part of the story that involved her Russian father felt a bit forced, and the entire storyline was honestly super over the top for me. Your favorite child at the library runs away to the library, you find him there, and decide to....put him in your car and drive out of town? Her thought process made no sense to me whatsoever.
Even Ian wasn't as engaging as I would have liked for him to be. Sure, he had spunk, but I never felt like I knew him. The only way the reader really gets to know Ian is through Lucy's view of him, her projection of who he is onto him. It's hard to even know how accurate that is - overall he's a pretty emotionally closed-off kid, honestly. He doesn't give the reader (or at least this reader) much to work with.
Here's the thing too - there is a love of books here that is very readily apparent. Lucy is (reluctantly) working as a children's librarian, and there are a number of chapters that either begin or entirely consist of plays on various children's books (If You Give a Mouse a Cookie, choose-your-own-adventure stories, etc.). Those are clever and interesting, and belie a love of literature, on top of fitting well with Lucy's own personality/occupation. But as a librarian, I didn't appreciate the portrayal of librarians in the book. Lucy doesn't regard her job very highly, her boss, the head librarian is portrayed as a clueless drunk, and even a librarian that Lucy and Ian encounter later is portrayed as rude and not particularly helpful. It really, really bothered me. And maybe that's just me being too sensitive, but it was really annoying to me.
That being said, there are moments of brilliance here. And given that this was Makkai's first novel, you can see seeds of what will come in future writing. The epilogue (of sorts) at the end is beautifully written - probably the strongest two or three pages of the entire book. I just wish more of that was there, and that more of the story somehow tied together. As Lucy herself discusses at various points in the book -- the events that take place almost feel like they could have been a dream -- which makes it all feel low stakes and kind of disappointing in the end, honestly.
This book is a love letter to kids who were saved by books. Rebecca Makkai is IMO one of the best novelists—the story stressed me out and the sentences made me sob. I mean isn’t this why some of us go into the book biz? To make sure kids who are losing themselves in the world find themselves in books
This book will not be everyone's cup of tea. It's not realistic, so you just have to go with the premise. If you can do that, you'll find it delightful. Otherwise, you might find it annoying. It's about a young librarian, Lucy Hull, in Hannibal, Missouri, and a sweet 10-year-old bookworm, Ian Drake, who loves the library and loves asking "Miss Hull" all about books and the worlds he finds there. Unfortunately, his parents are super religious and strict and, because they and everyone else seem to think Ian is gay, they send him to weekly anti-gay classes. When he runs away to the library, Lucy wants to protect him from his bigoted parents. Even though she knows little about what he's really experiencing at home, she heads off with him on an adventure. Who is really the kidnapper here, the book asks. I did get bored after awhile with their road trip—a trip that is completely unbelievable, but that's OK—but I wanted to see how it would end. How in the world would Lucy get away with kidnapping? I read this book this year because it's Rebecca Makkai's debut and her book "The Great Believers" was my favorite of 2019. This is not as good, but it's enjoyable.
This is the year that my mild obsession with Rebecca Makkai was born. I read and loved 2018’s The Great Believers; then 2023’s I Have Some Questions For You when it came along, to very mixed reviews. I decided I needed to reread it this year, and confirmed my love for it. So naturally it was time to seek out Makkai’s backlist, which led me to this whimsical debut of hers.
In it, children’s librarian Lucy believes she has sound reasons for helping her favorite young patron smuggle books past his censoring, fundamentalist Christian mother--after all, she has enrolled him in anti-gay classes and doesn’t seem to be accepting him for who he is. This leads the two book lovers down an unlikely, madcap, adventure-filled path that is entertaining but not all sweetness and light, with many a lesson to be learned.
Turns out The Borrower is a divisive book, too. Checking out Goodreads reviews, I learned that many readers couldn’t withhold their judgment of Lucy for a choice she made, so therefore said readers had little good to say about the book.
I myself love a messy, flawed protagonist, especially one that makes poor choices in the moment, and even more especially when those choices amount to what is a quirky love story—a love story with a moral of Be True to Yourself. I also love a cover that features books!
Ultimately The Borrowers is a road trip, a coming of age tale, and a love letter to reading rolled into one. So many favorite books were mentioned along the way, any reader’s delight. It made me laugh, think, and cry, my favorite things to do when I read. It’s radically different than the two others I've read by Makkai and cemented my admiration for her versatile writing chops.
In it, children’s librarian Lucy believes she has sound reasons for helping her favorite young patron smuggle books past his censoring, fundamentalist Christian mother--after all, she has enrolled him in anti-gay classes and doesn’t seem to be accepting him for who he is. This leads the two book lovers down an unlikely, madcap, adventure-filled path that is entertaining but not all sweetness and light, with many a lesson to be learned.
Turns out The Borrower is a divisive book, too. Checking out Goodreads reviews, I learned that many readers couldn’t withhold their judgment of Lucy for a choice she made, so therefore said readers had little good to say about the book.
I myself love a messy, flawed protagonist, especially one that makes poor choices in the moment, and even more especially when those choices amount to what is a quirky love story—a love story with a moral of Be True to Yourself. I also love a cover that features books!
Ultimately The Borrowers is a road trip, a coming of age tale, and a love letter to reading rolled into one. So many favorite books were mentioned along the way, any reader’s delight. It made me laugh, think, and cry, my favorite things to do when I read. It’s radically different than the two others I've read by Makkai and cemented my admiration for her versatile writing chops.
A funny, fun, slightly weird story of a librarian & a book-loving kid, with a dash of soviet lore and cross-country escapades. Lots of literary & kidlit references & recommendations, plus librarian humor!
(4 stars, rounded up because the ending is perfection)
I've actually read this novel twice because I enjoyed it so much. It's a good novel, but that ending is seriously perfect.
I've actually read this novel twice because I enjoyed it so much. It's a good novel, but that ending is seriously perfect.
I love Rebecca Makkai’s writing so much. She tackles these large, lofty topics (finding yourself, saving yourself, running from yourself) in some interesting ways—packaged inside of characters who feel so real and singular. I’m so happy she allowed both Lucy and Ian to be flawed and messy and (mainly Lucy) truly bad at times. It made the moral wrestling at the heart of this all the more interesting.
The plot in this wore thin a bit but the writing—and the ending—really just made it a joy to read.
The plot in this wore thin a bit but the writing—and the ending—really just made it a joy to read.