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A review by littlestcabbage
The Borrower by Rebecca Makkai
4.0
Emily bought me this book for my birthday, thinking (rightly) that it was up my alley. It features the following: a quirky young child, a road trip, a children's librarian, literary allusions, parents with secrets, and skepticism about Christian extremism. ALL THINGS I LIKE!
It did not disappoint. I can see lots of people I like enjoying this book and specifically want to put it in a couple friends' hands. I will admit that one has to suspend disbelief a bit -- really, she let it get this far? -- but I found myself eager to see how it'd all end, how Lucy would get out of the pickle of having kinda-sorta-mostly abducted a child (who himself ran away). Also, I particularly appreciated the demystification of Ian toward the end of the book. Was he really as brilliant and misunderstood as she'd believed, or was she projecting on him all along?
Oh, and way to throw in a religious relic in for laughs. GOD I love religious relics.
This is a terrible review of a great book. Forgive me, I'm tired...and also, I never write good reviews (I don't aim to). I write these blurbs so I'll remember what I liked or didn't like about books, as I am Forgetful Jones. So Heather, remember this: You liked the idea of an unqualified woman getting to work as a children's librarian, because you'd secretly love to switch places with her. You liked the strange, well-read boy with the oppressive religious parents, and you liked that the librarian found ways to sneak him the best books. You liked taking a vicarious roadtrip and you liked ending it sort of anticlimactically. You also liked that it ended with a thread of hope. And a reading list.
It did not disappoint. I can see lots of people I like enjoying this book and specifically want to put it in a couple friends' hands. I will admit that one has to suspend disbelief a bit -- really, she let it get this far? -- but I found myself eager to see how it'd all end, how Lucy would get out of the pickle of having kinda-sorta-mostly abducted a child (who himself ran away). Also, I particularly appreciated the demystification of Ian toward the end of the book. Was he really as brilliant and misunderstood as she'd believed, or was she projecting on him all along?
Oh, and way to throw in a religious relic in for laughs. GOD I love religious relics.
This is a terrible review of a great book. Forgive me, I'm tired...and also, I never write good reviews (I don't aim to). I write these blurbs so I'll remember what I liked or didn't like about books, as I am Forgetful Jones. So Heather, remember this: You liked the idea of an unqualified woman getting to work as a children's librarian, because you'd secretly love to switch places with her. You liked the strange, well-read boy with the oppressive religious parents, and you liked that the librarian found ways to sneak him the best books. You liked taking a vicarious roadtrip and you liked ending it sort of anticlimactically. You also liked that it ended with a thread of hope. And a reading list.