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A review by janine1122
The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai
3.0
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.