Scan barcode
A review by oashackelford
The Librarianist by Patrick deWitt
3.0
Bob Comet is a retired librarian living in Portland Oregon. When he meets an old woman with dementia who is lost he returns her to an assisted living facility, only to start volunteering there. While he is volunteering there he starts thinking about the different things in his life that brought him to where he is now. His one and only marriage, his time spent as a runaway at the end of World War 2, and of course, his time as a librarian.
I am not sure what the point of this book was supposed to be, but I did enjoy it. I think that the point of it was that towards the end of your life you get nostalgia for the things that were, and the avenues that your life could have taken, and you begin spending more of your time in the past than you do in the present. I am not sure if any of Bob's stories were meant to have a point, or if the points were meant to circle back on themselves, because it just seemed like the story of an old man lost in his memories.
All that being said, I did enjoy the book. The characters are funny, and there are sad moments as well that pull you in. As the reader, I almost didn't care that the stories didn't seem to have a point, because I rarely feel as though all my life were building to one thing, and it was nice too have a character whose life wasn't supposed to be a metaphor for a big lesson I am supposed to learn. The character is lost in his memories, I am not sure that there is more of a point, or a lesson, than that.
I did rate this book a three even though I liked it. I thought that I enjoyed it, but I know a lot of people who would feel like the book wasted there time because there wasn't some sort of big obvious conclusion, but I actually kind of liked that about the book. The main character was an unremarkable man who didn't do much with his life, but that doesn't mean that he had a worthless life. I just don't feel like it is a book I could recommend to everyone, I think that really only a few people would be able to enjoy this without feeling as though they have wasted their time.
I am not sure what the point of this book was supposed to be, but I did enjoy it. I think that the point of it was that towards the end of your life you get nostalgia for the things that were, and the avenues that your life could have taken, and you begin spending more of your time in the past than you do in the present. I am not sure if any of Bob's stories were meant to have a point, or if the points were meant to circle back on themselves, because it just seemed like the story of an old man lost in his memories.
All that being said, I did enjoy the book. The characters are funny, and there are sad moments as well that pull you in. As the reader, I almost didn't care that the stories didn't seem to have a point, because I rarely feel as though all my life were building to one thing, and it was nice too have a character whose life wasn't supposed to be a metaphor for a big lesson I am supposed to learn. The character is lost in his memories, I am not sure that there is more of a point, or a lesson, than that.
I did rate this book a three even though I liked it. I thought that I enjoyed it, but I know a lot of people who would feel like the book wasted there time because there wasn't some sort of big obvious conclusion, but I actually kind of liked that about the book. The main character was an unremarkable man who didn't do much with his life, but that doesn't mean that he had a worthless life. I just don't feel like it is a book I could recommend to everyone, I think that really only a few people would be able to enjoy this without feeling as though they have wasted their time.